Could Diabetes Duration Affect Stroke Risk?

Patients who have had diabetes for 3 or more years and also have atrial fibrillation (AF) have an increased risk for ischemic stroke, according to a new study.

Since diabetes is a known risk factor for ischemic stroke in patients with AF, researchers were curious whether having diabetes for a longer period of time impacted the likelihood of having a stroke.

To conduct their study, researchers followed 2101 diabetic patients with AF who weren’t on anticoagulants from the Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation study from 1996 to 2003.

Researchers recorded the occurrence of stroke in patients who had diabetes for less than 3 years versus those who had diabetes for 3 or more years in addition to tracking patients’ HbA1c levels and glycemic controls.

RELATED CONTENT
Duration of Diabetes Increases Stroke Risk
Stroke Risk Differs Between Men and Women with Diabetes

At baseline, 60% of patients had diabetes for 3 or more years.

After a mean follow-up of 2.5 years, researchers found that those patients had an increased rate of ischemic stroke than those who had diabetes for less than 3 years. However, low glycemic control and raised HbA1c levels didn’t affect the risk of ischemic stroke.

“Duration of diabetes is a more important predictor of ischemic stroke than glycemic control in patients who have diabetes and AF,” researchers concluded.

--Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Ashburner JM, Go AS, Chang Y, et al. Effect of diabetes and glycemic control on ischemic stroke risk in AF patients. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016. 67(3):239-247. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2015.10.080.