Carotid intimal medial thickness and its relation to endothelial dysfunction and echocardiographic changes in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

AIM: To assess carotid intimal medial thickness (cIMT) in adolescent type 1 diabetic patients and to detect its relation with echocardiographic changes and flow mediated dilatation (FMD) in the brachial artery. METHODS: The study included 62 type 1 diabetic patients and 30 healthy volunteer of the same age and sex. A blood sample was taken for analysis of glycosylated hemoglobin and lipid profile and a urine sample was taken for analysis of albumin/creatinine ratio. cIMT, echocardiography, and FMD via ultrasound were also done; t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test (for non-symmetrically distributed data) for independent variables and Pearson's or Spearman correlation were used. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 16.3 ± 1.5 years and mean duration of diabetes was 9.4 ± 2.9 years. cIMT (Rt, Lt, and both Rt and Lt) were significantly higher, while FMD and FMD/nitrate mediated dilatation (NMD) ratio was significantly lower in diabetics. Rt cIMT had a significant negative correlation with FMD and FMD/NMD. cIMT had a significant positive correlation with left ventricular end diastolic dimension, inter ventricular septum thickness, peak mitral flow velocity during early diastole/peak mitral flow velocity during late diastole, left ventricular mass, and left ventricular mass index (p<0.05). In addition, cIMT had a significant correlation with waist circumference, waist/height ratio, albumin/ creatinine ratio, total cholesterol, and triglyceride. CONCLUSION: We conclude that alteration in myocardial function and vascular endothelial dysfunction induced by diabetes mellitus may begin early with the association of early atherosclerotic changes.