Prediabetes and insulin resistance in a population of patients with heart failure and reduced or preserved ejection fraction but without diabetes, overweight or hypertension

Background

The relationships between glucose abnormalities, insulin resistance (IR) and heart failure (HF) are unclear, especially regarding to the HF type, i.e., HF with reduced (HFrEF) or preserved (HFpEF) ejection fraction. Overweight, diabetes and hypertension are potential contributors to IR in persons with HF. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of prediabetes and IR in a population of Vietnamese patients with HFrEF or HFpEF but no overweight, diabetes or hypertension, in comparison with healthy controls, and the relation between prediabetes or IR and HF severity.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cross-sectional observational study in 190 non-overweight normotensive HF patients (114 with HFrEF and 76 with HFpEF, 92.6% were ischemic HF, mean age was 70.1 years, mean BMI 19.7 kg/m²) without diabetes (neither known diabetes nor newly diagnosed by OGTT) and 95 healthy individuals (controls). Prediabetes was defined using 2006 WHO criteria. Glucose and insulin levels were measured fasting and 2 h after glucose challenge. IR was assessed using HOMA-IR and several other indexes.

Results

Compared to controls, HF patients had a higher prevalence of prediabetes (63.2% vs 22.1%) and IR (according to HOMA-IR, 55.3% vs 26.3%), higher HOMA-IR, insulin/glucose ratio after glucose and FIRI, and lower ISIT0 and ISIT120 (< 0.0001 for all comparisons), with no difference for body weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and lipid parameters. Prediabetes was more prevalent (69.3% vs 53.9%, p = 0.03) and HOMA-IR was higher (p < 0.0001) in patients with HFrEF than with HFpEF. Among both HFrEF and HFpEF patients, those with prediabetes or IR had a more severe HF (higher NYHA functional class and NT-proBNP levels, lower ejection fraction; p = 0.04–< 0.0001) than their normoglycemic or non-insulinresistant counterparts, with no difference for blood pressure and lipid parameters.

Conclusion

In non-diabetic non-overweight normotensive patients with HF, the prevalence of prediabetes is higher with some trend to more severe IR in those with HFrEF than in those with HFpEF. Both prediabetes and IR are associated with a more severe HF. The present data support HF as a culprit for IR. Intervention strategies should be proposed to HF patients with prediabetes aiming to reduce the risk of incident diabetes. Studies should be designed to test whether such strategies may translate into an improvement of further HF-related outcomes.