Prediabetes and risk of heart failure: the link grows stronger

Abstract

In a recently published paper in Cardiovascular Diabetology, Sinha et al. (Association of fasting glucose with lifetime risk of incident heart failure: the Lifetime Risk Pooling Project. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2021;20(1):66) reported that prediabetes (defined as a fasting plasma glucose concentration of 100–125 mg/dL) was associated with a higher lifetime risk of heart failure in middle-aged White adults and Black women, with the association attenuating in older Black women. This study provides important evidence that the risk of heart failure is increased in people with a fasting plasma glucose concentration as low as 100 mg/dL, supporting the definition of prediabetes according to the American Diabetes Association guideline. The study also strongly supports the notion that prediabetes should be regarded not only as a high-risk state for the development of diabetes but also as a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity.