Prediction of mortality using measures of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in the diabetic and nondiabetic population: the MONICA/KORA Augsburg Cohort Study. Diabetes Care 31, 556–561. Conflict of Interest Statement: The author declares that the research was

OBJECTIVES — To evaluate whether reduced heart rate variability (HRV), prolonged cor-rected QT (QTc) interval, or increased QT dispersion (QTD) are predictors of mortality in the general diabetic and nondiabetic population. RESEARCH DESIGN ANDMETHODS — Nondiabetic (n 1,560) and diabetic (n 160) subjects aged 55–74 years were assessed to determine whether reduced HRV, prolonged QTc interval, and increased QTD may predict all-cause mortality. Lowest quartiles for the maximum-minimum R-R interval difference (max-min, as measured at baseline from a 20-s standard 12-lead resting electrocardiogram without controlling for depth and rate of respira-tion), QTc 440 ms and QTD 60 ms, were used as cutpoints. RESULTS — During a 9-year follow-up, 10.5 % of the nondiabetic and 30.6 % of the diabetic population deceased. In the nondiabetic individuals, multivariate Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors and demographic variables showed that pro-longed QTc interval (hazard ratio 2.02 [95 % CI 1.29–3.17]; P 0.002) but not low max-min (0.93 [0.65–1.34]; P 0.700), and increased QTD (0.98 [0.60–1.60]; P 0.939) were asso-ciated with increased mortality. In the diabetic subjects, prolonged QTc was also a predictor o