Prevalence of Heart Disease among Asymptomatic Chronic Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Background: The burden of non-communicable diseases in India is rapidly increasing and two major diseases among them are Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Cardiovascular Diseases. The poor prognosis of diabetic patients has been explained by a greater incidence of heart failure and the adverse impact of diabetes on heart failure, perhaps reflecting an underlying diabetic cardiomyopathy exacerbated by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and coronary artery disease (CAD). This could be avoided if screening techniques could be used to identify LV dysfunction in its preclinical phase. This study was done to evaluate the role of BNP as a screening tool.

Methodology: This study was done as a cross sectional study among 77 diabetic patients visiting a cardiac care center in a tertiary hospital in Chennai. BNP was immunoassayed using fluorescence detection technique. The results were compared with Treadmill test and Echocardiography. Validity of the screening test was assessed by estimating sensitivity, specificity, predictive values. ROC curve was plotted to assess the area under the curve.

Results: BNP levels >600 were found to have high sensitivity and specificity in detection of LV dysfunction, when compared with the gold standard investigations. The results were statistically significant (p<0.05).

Conclusion: BNP is a noninvasive and a feasible screening tool which may be used for early detection of LV dysfunction among the patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.