STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 7 Even small increases in fasting glucose levels are associated with an increased risk of congestive heart failure, according to Swedish researchers.
Using data from 31,546 high-risk heart-attack survivors in two international trials, a study found fasting glucose levels may independently predict the risk of being hospitalized with congestive heart failure.
The researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm found for all patients, an increase of 1 mmol/L above a patient's entry glucose level increased the risk of hospitalization for congestive heart failure by 5 percent.
These are only associations, Claes Held of the Institutet said in a statement.
They do not prove that elevated blood glucose causes heart failure. To demonstrate a causal relationship, you would have to do a study that showed lowering blood glucose levels would reduce the incidence of heart failure, he said.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
