A clinical risk score for heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes and macrovascular disease: An analysis of the PROactive study

BackgroundDiabetes mellitus is associated with a high risk for heart failure, which is further increased in the presence of coronary heart disease. So far no clinical risk score for development of heart failure exists for patients with type 2 diabetes and macrovascular disease.MethodsIndependent clinical predictors for heart failure events were identified by Cox regression in a post-hoc analysis of the PROactive trial and were used for calculating a risk prediction score.Results233 of 4951 patients with available baseline data suffered a serious adverse heart failure event during a mean follow-up of 34.5 (± 2.3) months. Age, renal dysfunction, diuretic use, HbA1c, duration of diabetes, LDL-cholesterol, heart rate, right and left bundle branch block, microalbuminuria, previous myocardial infarction and pioglitazone treatment were independent predictors of heart failure. The risk score showed a good calibration and moderate discrimination (AUC 0.75). Patients were accurately stratified with an actual risk of 1.0%, 3.2% and 9.7% in the bottom, middle and top tertile of the score, respectively, with corresponding hazard ratios of 3.5 (95% CI 2.0–6.2) and 10.5 (95% CI 6.3–17.6) for the middle and top tertile compared to the bottom tertile (both p < 0.0001). The score stratified well in subgroups defined by pioglitazone treatment, prior myocardial infarction, obesity, poor glycemic control and microalbuminuria.ConclusionA risk score based on routinely assessed clinical variables proved a good stratification for future heart failure events in diabetic patients with macrovascular disease. Strategies targeting specific interventions and monitoring of high risk patients need further evaluation.