Inflammatory markers and intimal media thickness in diabetics with negative myocardial perfusion scan.

Background: We compared the type and duration of diabetes mellitus (DM), patient demography, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), Homocysteine and other variables with IMT, to determine if these markers were correlated in diabetes (in whom technetium myocardial perfusion scan were negative) and would it be appropriate biomarkers for arthrosclerosis detection in this group of diabetics.

Methods: Forty patients with DM, without CHD history, were screened with stress sintigraphy imaging using 2 days stress/rest Technetium 99 tetrafosmin protocol, employing the standard Bruce protocol. Echocardiography study requested for each patient, two blood samples for hsCRP, were requested for each candidate three weeks apart, Lipid profiles, plasma homocysteine, and hemoglobin A1C were also requested. Finally Intima-media thickness were measured for all patients.

Results: There were no relationships between hsCRP level and DM duration or with the type of DM; also there were no relation between DM duration and homocysteine or between DM type and Homocysteine. Intimal media thickness was increased proportionally with the serum level of Homocysteine.

Conclusions: This study did not show any role for the inflammatory markers in predicating the presence of coronary artery disease in participants with DM, without medium size artery disease, which may support that DM is not the only player in initiating atherosclerosis.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Inflammatory markers; C-reactive protein; Myocardial ischemia; Homocysteine; Intima-media thickness.