Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found that a two-step screening methodology that combines biomarker testing and clinical risk assessment can more accurately determine which type 2 diabetes patients require medication to prevent heart failure.According to the study, the new method is the most effective way to forecast heart failure in diabetic patients, even in those who are only clinically risk assessed and are therefore considered low-risk. The study involved collaboration between medical professionals and researchers from the United States, Canada, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
“Heart failure is one of the most common manifestations of cardiovascular disease, which is often brought on by diabetes,” stated Ambarish Pandey, M.D., UT Southwestern Division of Cardiology Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and corresponding author of the study. “In recent years, many physicians have relied on one-step screening approaches, like clinical risk scores, biomarker tests, or echocardiography, to identify those at high risk for developing heart failure.”However, heart failure can occasionally occur in people who are deemed low-risk by these one-step risk assessment methods. Moreover, it is frequently impractical and inefficient to screen every diabetic with an often costly biomarker or echo examination.”
The most effective and possibly least expensive method for screening for heart failure, according to Dr. Pandey and his colleagues, is to combine these risk assessment strategies sequentially with the addition of a second step. For example, low-risk patients based on their clinical risk score could be given a blood test for natriuretic peptide levels, a biomarker for cardiovascular disease.
When the heart muscle is stressed out, the heart produces substances called natriuretic peptides. More people may benefit from appropriate screening and established prophylactic treatments, like sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), to safeguard their cardiac health as a result of the research.
Data from 6,293 diabetic patients who participated in seven cohort studies were used in the analysis. Four,889 of them did not exhibit any symptoms of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Every patient had been screened to ascertain their degree of heart failure risk. Through a five-year follow-up, the researchers compared the screening approaches and downstream risk of heart failure events to identify the combination and order that best predicted individuals at risk.
