A recent study published in ‘Journal of Diabetes and its Complications’ had reported that young adults with long-duration type 1 diabetes had a high risk of heart failure. Participants in the Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications (EDC) study without known baseline heart failure (n = 655) were enrolled in the study and then followed for 25 years.

The mean baseline age and diabetes duration were 27(8) years and 19(8) years. Incidence for any hard heart failure was 3.4 and 1.8/1000 person-years. Diabetes duration, smoking and triglycerides were significant risk factors of any heart failure; longer diabetes duration, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and higher white blood cell count significantly predicted hard heart failure. A gradient association was observed between the number of microvascular disease (from 0 to 3) and “hard” heart failure endpoint but not “any” clinically defined heart failure.

The study concluded that young adults with long-duration type 1 diabetes had a high risk of heart failure.