Complete blood count, lipid profiles, and inflammatory markers associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes

Abstract

Background: Complete blood count (CBC) and inflammatory markers derived from hematology parameters, as well as lipid profiles, have emerged as novel biomarkers that aid in predicting the progression of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in people with diabetes. This study aimed to evaluate the alterations in CBC, lipid profiles, and inflammatory markers derived from CBC in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-associated ASCVD and the associations between glycated hemoglobin and hematology, lipid profiles, and inflammatory markers. Methods: Overall, 75 patients with T2DM ASCVD from the National Cardiovascular Center Harapan Kita were investigated. Patients with diabetes were classified into high-risk (HR), very high-risk (VHR), and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) groups. VHR-ASCVD was defined as having ≥2 major ASCVD events, or one major ASCVD event and ≥2 high-risk conditions. HR-ASCVD were patients with >3 major risk factors, diabetes, chronic kidney disease stage 3B or 4, and a very high LDL-C level. ECG and cardiac biomarker tests ensured an ACS diagnosis. CBC, lipid profiles, and IL-6 were estimated in all groups. Results: Patients with T2DM ACS demonstrated significantly different levels of red blood cell distribution width (RDW), leucocytes, basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, segmented neutrophils, absolute lymphocytes, absolute monocytes, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), total cholesterol, LDL, HDL/total cholesterol ratio, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and IL-6. HbA1c was significantly correlated with leucocytes (p<0.05), segmented neutrophils (p<0.001), NLR (p<0.05), PLR (p<0,05), total cholesterol (p<0.05), LDL (p<0.05), total cholesterol/ HDL ratio (p<0.05), and IL-6 (p<0.001), eosinophils (p<0.05), lymphocytes (p<0.05), monocytes (p<0.05), and absolute lymphocytes (p<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that monocytes, MLR, leucocytes, eosinophils, and absolute monocytes were found to be valuable predictors for T2DM ACS (p<0.05). Conclusions: CBC, inflammatory biomarkers derived from CBC, and lipid ratios were inexpensive parameters that could serve as inflammatory biomarkers of increased risks and complications in T2DM ASCVD.