Issue 110 Item 11 ADA: Link Between Heart Disease and Inflammation

Doctors found higher levels of markers of inflammation in the blood of people with heart disease The Link was made, in part, when doctors found higher levels of markers of inflammation in the blood of people with heart disease and then found that such markers also predicted risk for a heart attack. Higher levels of those same markers have now been found in people with diabetes and those at high risk for diabetes. One of those markers is CRP (C-reactive protein), which appears to be elevated in the presence of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. “It’s possible that if you have excessive fat, substances secreted from fat stimulate markers of inflammation,” explained Vivian Fonseca, M.D., professor of medicine at Tulane University, New Orleans, who spoke at a symposium on diabetic dyslipidemia and inflammation. “So inflammation may be the common link for developing insulin resistance, diabetes, and heart disease, making it very attractive to monitor and treat high CRP levels.”

In an ancillary study of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) project, an NIH funded research effort, more than 10,000 people who did not have diabetes were followed with blood sampling for nine years. The researchers found an association between developing diabetes and a series of inflammatory markers, especially sialic acid, according to Bruce Duncan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Medicine of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. “The quarter of the sample with the highest levels of these markers were at a 20% to 60% higher risk than the lowest quarter, clearly suggesting that something about the inflammatory response is related to diabetes.” American Diabetes Association’s 62nd Annual Scientific Sessions See item 12 for more research