Association between Triglyceride Glucose Index and the Risk of Peripheral Artery Disease

Background The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index has been used as a simple surrogate marker of insulin resistance, an independent predictor of atherosclerotic vascular diseases. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the TyG index and peripheral artery disease (PAD).Methods A total of 3375 participants with comleted TyG and ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI) records were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004. The TyG index was calculated as ln[triglycerides (mg/dL)×glucose (mg/dL)/2], and the presence of PAD was defined as ABPI ≤ 0.9. Results The participants were 60.1±12.8 year old and 51.3% (1730) were male. The prevelance of PAD was 7.1% (238). Compared with the reference lowest quartile of TyG index, the highest quartile was associated with 1.66-fold (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-2.43; p=0.008) risk of PAD. After adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyles, and cardiometabolic factors, the multivariate-adjusted OR and 95% CI were 1.55 (1.03-2.37; p=0.039) or participants within the highest quartile. TyG index was also independently and linearly associated with higher presence of PAD (OR 1.27 [1.02-1.56]; p=0.027). Subgroup analysis showed that the association between TyG index and the risk of PAD was still consistant across groups except for obesity.Conclusions Higher TyG index was significantly associated with the higher risk of PAD, which could be a marker of PAD.