Diabesity lipid index: A potential novel marker of 10-year cardiovascular risk

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is a major cardiovascular risk factor. To put appropriate preventive measures in place, there is a need to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk. Most of the available risk estimators are cumbersome while some are inaccurate in estimating the risk for individuals with Type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to describe the diabesity lipid index (DLI), a composite index for predicting 10-year cardiovascular risk in Type 2 diabetes. METHODS: The study design was a cross-sectional study involving 70 individuals living with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained for the study. Body mass index and waist circumference were determined for each participant. Fasting plasma glucose, fasting lipid profile, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were also measured. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), DLI, and QRISK 3 were calculated using the appropriate formulae. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was performed for DLI. DLI = HbA1c (%) x Waist circumference (cm) / HDL -- C (mg/dl) RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 53.34 ± 9.57 years. The median duration of diabetes was 11.50 years. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, and truncal obesity were found in 70%, 65.7%, and 64.3% of the participants, respectively. About 38.6% had sub-optimal glycemic control. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between 10-year cardiovascular risk using QRISK 3 and DLI (r = 0.317; P = 0.008). Moreover, a ROC curve analysis done showed that the area under curve was 0.72 (95% confidence interval 0.56–0.85; P = 0.032). The sensitivity and specificity of using this cut-off value to define high cardiovascular risk were 87.5% and 79.2%, respectively CONCLUSION: DLI is a simple estimator of 10-year cardiovascular risk among individuals with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. It compares favorably with AIP, a previously validated cardiovascular risk estimator.