Duration of diabetes turned out to be a better predictor of ischemic stroke than glycemic control for patients with both diabetes and atrial fibrillation (Afib) in a new study. Researchers looked at more than 2,000 patients and found that having diabetes for 3 or more years was strongly associated with an increased risk of stroke, compared to having diabetes for less than 3 years (adjusted hazard ratio 1.74, 95% CI 1.10-2.76) in the analysis, which included patients with diabetes and Afib enrolled in the Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation (ATRIA) study.
Adding diabetes duration to stroke risk models could potentially improve the assessment of stroke risk in diabetic patients, wrote Jeffrey Ashburner, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Source: MedPage…
