Glycemic Control Improves Left Ventricular Function in Type 1 Diabetes

Overall, the mean values of the diastolic parameters were significantly improved at six months.

Strict glycemic control can prevent or reverse left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with type 1 diabetes.

“As far as we know, this is the first longitudinal study demonstrating a close relation between glycemic control and left ventricular diastolic function in type 1 diabetes,” the authors explain.

Dr. Anne M. Grandi from the University of Insubria, Italy, and colleagues evaluated the influence of glycemic control on diastolic function in 36 patients with inadequately controlled type 1 diabetes, without clinically detectable heart disease.

Fourteen patients (39%) had evidence of preclinical impairment of left ventricular diastolic function, the authors report.

Six months of careful insulin therapy resulted in significant decreases of glycated hemoglobin, the report indicates, and reversal of microalbuminuria in four of six patients.

At the six-month follow-up, diastolic function was impaired in four patients, including three of the patients with basal impairment and one patient who had increased glycated hemoglobin, the researchers note. By 12-month follow-up, three patients, including one of the patients with basal impairment and two patients who had increased glycated hemoglobin, had preclinical diastolic dysfunction.

Overall, the mean values of the diastolic parameters were significantly improved at six months, the results indicate. Improvement in diastolic parameters correlated with improvements in glycated hemoglobin.

The authors conclude that “diastolic dysfunction can be prevented or reversed, at least partly, by tight glycemic control.”

Am J Cardiol 2006;97:71-76.