A University of Pittsburgh research team has found that HbA1 (hemoglobin A1) predicts mortality or death from coronary artery disease (CAD) in women with Type 1 diabetes but not in men with this disease. HbA1 is a known indicator of prolonged high blood sugar. These results are being presented at the 39th annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, March 25, in Orlando, Fla.
"This gender-specific role of hyperglycemia may explain the lack of usual male excess of coronary artery disease death rates in diabetes," said Trevor Orchard, M.D., principal investigator, professor of medicine and pediatrics in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and professor of epidemiology in the Graduate School of Public Health.
To assess the role diabetes control might play in the development or progression of CAD, the team analyzed eight-year incidence data from the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complication Study. This is a 10-year prospective study of 658 subjects whose insulin-dependent diabetes was diagnosed in childhood. The average age of participants at the beginning of the study was 27.6 years, and their diabetes had been diagnosed for 19.4 of those years. Dr. Orchard said that CAD developed in 77 patients, 25 of whom died.