Endothelial dysfunction was highly prevalent in Chinese patients with T2DM, and FMD was independently, inversely and linearly associated with intermediate-to-high calculated 10-year ASCVD risk.
Endothelial dysfunction, defined as FMD <6.5%, was highly prevalent among the 1,272 patients with T2DM.
Several factors were independently associated with impaired FMD in multivariate analysis.
FMD was independently and inversely associated with intermediate-to-high 10-year ASCVD risk.
FMD showed moderate discriminative ability for intermediate-to-high 10-year ASCVD risk.
The association between FMD and intermediate-to-high ASCVD risk was linear, with no evidence of non-linearity.
This study looked at records of 1,272 Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes to see how the health of their blood vessel lining relates to their predicted 10-year risk of heart disease and stroke. Vessel health was measured with flow-mediated dilation (FMD), an ultrasound test of how well an artery widens when blood flow increases. About 79% of patients had impaired FMD, showing that blood vessel dysfunction was very common in this group. Patients with higher FMD were less likely to fall into the intermediate-to-high predicted risk category, and the relationship followed a straight-line pattern with no threshold or plateau. Older age, higher systolic blood pressure, male sex, smoking, and hypertension were also linked to poorer FMD. The ability of FMD alone to distinguish higher from lower predicted risk was moderate. This research suggests FMD may be a useful marker connecting blood vessel function to cardiovascular risk in people with type 2 diabetes. Because the study was retrospective and used a calculated risk score rather than actual heart events, it shows an association rather than proof that poor vessel function causes higher risk.
Kj H, Sy S, Cy Z, Ay W, Y H, Yx S, et al.. (2026). Independent linear association between flow-mediated dilation and predicted intermediate-to-high 10-year ASCVD risk in patients with type 2 diabetes: a retrospective study.. Frontiers in endocrinology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2026.1986597