Recent publications on Residual Risk

Results from this analysis of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study indicate that the severity of metabolic syndrome, estimated by Z-scores, may offer a means to estimate and track coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
 
The study included data from 1419 subjects with diabetes and 7241 without diabetes, who were followed in four visits for adjudicated CHD diagnoses over a 20-year period. Metabolic syndrome severity was calculated as a Z-score using sex- and race- based formulae, based on the five traditional components (waist circumference, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and fasting glucose). Subjects with diabetes not only had the highest metabolic syndrome severity at baseline, but also during follow-up, whereas those without diabetes had low severity during follow-up. In the diabetes cohort, there were 1446 cases of CHD. Each 1-standard deviation unit increase in metabolic syndrome severity score was associated with 29% increase in risk of future CHD events.
 
The authors make the point that tracking metabolic syndrome severity over time using this approach may help to motivate individuals with diabetes to change their lifestyle to reduce their risk of CHD.