Bauduceau B, et al. - Researchers aimed to investigate the cardiovascular complications over 5 Years and their association with survival in the GERODIAB cohort of elderly French patients with type 2 diabetes. In elderly patients with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular complications were correlated with poor survival, particularly heart failure.

Methods

• The researchers included consecutive patients (n = 987, median age = 77 years) from 56 diabetes centers over 1 year.
• They recorded individual characteristics, history and complications of diabetes, geriatric factors, and clinical and biological parameters.
• They analyzed survival using the Kaplan-Meier method and proportional hazards regression models.

Results

• The researchers observed increase in the frequency of cardiovascular complications from 47% at inclusion to 67% at 5 years.
• Coronary heart disease (increasing from 30% to 41%) and vascular disease of the lower limbs (25% to 35%) and of the cerebral vessels (15% to 26%) were the most frequent complications.
• Heart failure was less common, however, its frequency doubled during the follow-up (9% to 20%).
• While coronary heart disease (P=0.0056) and vascular disease of cerebral vessels (P=0.026) had mild associations, heart failure was strongly correlated with poor survival (P < 0.0001), as was vascular disease of the lower limbs (P=0.0004).
• Factors strongly associated with survival were amputation (P < 0.0001) and foot wounds (P < 0.0001).
• The strongest predictor of poor survival was heart failure (hazard ratio [HR] 1.96 [95% CI 1.45-2.64]; P < 0.0001) in multivariate models.
• When other factors were considered simultaneously, it remained significant (HR 1.92 [95% CI 1.43-2.58]; P < 0.0001).