A new study finds that diabetes and chronic kidney disease can lead to heart disease.
People with chronic kidney disease (CKD), type 2 diabetes or both were predicted to have an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) eight to 28 years earlier than someone without those conditions, according to a preliminary study published Monday.
Scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago conducted a simulation study to estimate the impact of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome on predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
They found that people with CKD alone would have a high heart risk eight years earlier than those without the disease. Among diabetics, the risk can arrive approximately a decade earlier than among those without diabetes.
Among people with diabetes and CKD, women were predicted to reach elevated CVD risk 26 years earlier and men 28 years earlier than those without either condition.
“Our findings help interpret the combination of risk factors that will lead to a high predicted risk of CVD and at what age they impact risk,” said the study’s lead author, Vaishnavi Krishnan, a researcher at Northwestern University.
“For example, if someone has near-elevated blood pressure, glucose, and/or impaired kidney function, but does not yet have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease, their risk may not be recognized. “Understanding how age interacts with risk factor levels is important to optimize CKM health.”
The study found that without CKM syndrome, the expected age to reach elevated CVD risk was 68 years for women and 63 years for men. However, with CKM components added to the simulated patient profile, the same level of risk was predicted to occur at a much younger age.
The findings will be presented at the American Heart Association’s 2024 Scientific Sessions taking place Nov. 16-18 in Chicago.
