Insulin resistance and risk of incident heart failure: Cardiovascular Health Study. Circ Heart Fail

Background—Patients with heart failure (HF) have higher fasting insulin levels and a higher prevalence of insulin resistance (IR) as compared with matched controls. IR leads to structural abnormalities in the heart, such as increased left atrial (LA) size, left ventricular (LV) mass, and alterations in transmitral velocity that can precede the diagnosis of HF. It is not known whether IR precedes the development of HF or whether the relationship between IR and HF is present among adults with HF due to non-ischemic heart disease. Methods and Results—We examined 4425 participants (60 % female) from the Cardiovascular Health Study after excluding those with HF, myocardial infarction, or treated diabetes at baseline. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the relative risk of incident HF associated with fasting insulin measured at study entry. There were 1216 cases of incident HF (1103 without antecedent MI) during a median follow-up of 12 years (maximum, 19 years)