Association between the triglyceride-glucose index and brachial artery flow-mediated dilation function in non-diabetic patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis.

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the relationship between brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) function and the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index in non-diabetic individuals receiving maintenance hemodialysis (MHD).

Methods: Data, including clinical factors, biochemical indicators, and FMD assessments, were obtained from non-diabetic patients undergoing MHD at our hospital. Vascular endothelial dysfunction (VED) was defined as FMD < 10%. Linear regression was used to assess factors associated with FMD, and logistic regression was applied to evaluate the relationship between the TyG index and VED. The predictive value of the TyG index for FMD was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Furthermore, subgroup and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analyses were employed to verify the robustness of the findings.

Results: A total of 190 patients were enrolled and assigned to three groups according to the tertiles of the TyG index. It was found that FMD decreased significantly as the TyG index increased (p < 0.001). Multivariate linear regression revealed a significant inverse association between the TyG index and FMD (β = -0.200, p=-0.026), while logistic regression showed a significant relationship between the TyG index and VED (adjusted OR = 3.323, p < 0.001). The area under the ROC curve was 0.651 (p = 0.001), indicating the utility of the TyG index in predicting FMD in asymptomatic non-diabetic individuals undergoing MHD. Further subgroup analyses demonstrated that the significant association between the TyG index and VED persisted across most subgroups, except in females, where no statistically significant relationship was observed (p interaction for sex = 0.017). RCS analysis confirmed the linear relationship between the TyG index and FMD (p overall = 0.0024, p nonlinearity = 0.2068).

Conclusions: An elevated TyG index was found to be significantly correlated with an increased likelihood of endothelial dysfunction in non-diabetic individuals undergoing MHD, and the TyG index demonstrated predictive significance for VED in this population.

Clinical trial number: Not applicable.