• Tzu-Wei Wu, Chao-Liang Chou, Chun-Fang Cheng, Shu-Xin Lu, and Li-Yu Wang.
• Department of Medicine, MacKay Medical College, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Electronic address: tzuweiwu@mmc.edu.tw.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2022 Jun 1; 121 (6): 1133-1140.

Background/PurposeAtherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus (DM) are both severe chronic diseases that cause huge burdens on patients' families and societies. Connections between the two diseases have brought high attention recently, however, population-based study with large sample size was few. The study aimed to explore the relationship between carotid atherosclerosis and DM.MethodsWe enrolled 3908 adults aged 40-74 years from communities and measured their cardio-metabolic profiles and scanned their carotid arteries bilaterally.ResultsThe overall prevalence rates of carotid plaque and DM were 34.4 and 10.7%, respectively. The age-specific prevalence rates of DM and carotid plaque were nearly linearly correlated in both sexes (both Pearson's correlation coefficient r > 0.97). The prevalence rates of carotid plaque, total plaque number ≥3, maximum diameter stenosis ≥30%, and plaque score ≥3 were 53.6, 24.8, 19.1, and 28.6%, respectively, in DM patients and were 32.1, 9.4, 9.8, and 11.2%, respectively, in non-DM controls. After adjustment for other conventional risk factors, the multivariable-adjusted OR of having carotid plaque was 1.60 (95% CI 1.27-2.01) and were 2.06 (95% CI 1.55-2.75), 1.33 (95% CI 0.99-1.78), and 2.03 (95% CI 1.55-2.65) for total plaque number ≥3, maximum diameter stenosis ≥30%, and plaque score ≥3, respectively.ConclusionWe demonstrated that prevalences of DM were linearly correlated with prevalences of carotid plaque and DM patients had higher prevalence rates of carotid plaque and more advanced carotid atherosclerosis than non-DM controls. Our results indicated the need to address the role of DM in atherosclerosis development.Copyright © 2021 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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