Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Aortic valve calcification across stages of dysglycemia in middle-aged individuals from the general population

Wang, Anne ; Östgren, Carl Johan ; Norhammar, Anna ; Kylhammar, David ; Jernberg, Tomas ; Lind, Lars ; Söderberg, Stefan ; Blomberg, Anders ; Engström, Gunnar LU and Bergström, Göran , et al. (2025) In Cardiovascular Diabetology 24(1).
Abstract

Background: Aortic valve calcification (AVC) is an underlying pathophysiological mechanism in aortic stenosis, which shares many risk factors with diabetes. However, the association between dysglycemia and early stages of AVC remains unclear. The aim was to examine the associations between stages of dysglycemia and signs of AVC among middle-aged individuals from the general population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study from the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) randomly enrolling 30,154 middle-aged men and women from six study sites in Sweden between 2013 and 2018. Glycemic status was based on the World Health Organization criteria (fasting blood glucose and/or HbA1c) and questionnaire-based answers on previous... (More)

Background: Aortic valve calcification (AVC) is an underlying pathophysiological mechanism in aortic stenosis, which shares many risk factors with diabetes. However, the association between dysglycemia and early stages of AVC remains unclear. The aim was to examine the associations between stages of dysglycemia and signs of AVC among middle-aged individuals from the general population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study from the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) randomly enrolling 30,154 middle-aged men and women from six study sites in Sweden between 2013 and 2018. Glycemic status was based on the World Health Organization criteria (fasting blood glucose and/or HbA1c) and questionnaire-based answers on previous diseases and categorized as normoglycemia, prediabetes, newly detected diabetes and known diabetes. AVC was assessed on cardiac computed tomography (CT) and defined as evident or not. Results: Of 29,331 individuals with data on glycemic status and AVC available, mean age was 57.5 years and normoglycemia was present in 76%, prediabetes in 16%, newly detected diabetes in 3% and known diabetes in 5%. The prevalence of AVC increased progressively across glycemic categories, particularly in males (8%, 11%, 14% and 17%; P < 0.01) compared to females (5%, 6%, 8% and 9%; P < 0.01). There was an association with AVC already in the early stages of dysglycemia; prediabetes (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.02–1.31), newly detected diabetes (1.34 [1.05–1.71]) and known diabetes (1.61 [1.34–1.93]) after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, study site, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and hypertension. Conclusions: In this large, contemporary, and randomly selected population of middle-aged individuals, prediabetes, newly detected diabetes and known diabetes were all associated with CT-detected AVC. Further studies are warranted to investigate if managing dysglycemia, even in its early stages, may help slow down AVC progression.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Aortic stenosis, Aortic valve calcification, Diabetes, Dysglycemia, Epidemiology, Fasting glucose, HbA1c, Prediabetes, Prevention
in
Cardiovascular Diabetology
volume
24
issue
1
article number
105
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • scopus:86000541683
  • pmid:40045270
ISSN
1475-2840
DOI
10.1186/s12933-025-02634-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
480c699b-dcf1-4ee4-9322-24ff9b0e691a
date added to LUP
2025-06-05 11:53:28
date last changed
2025-06-06 03:00:03
@article{480c699b-dcf1-4ee4-9322-24ff9b0e691a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Aortic valve calcification (AVC) is an underlying pathophysiological mechanism in aortic stenosis, which shares many risk factors with diabetes. However, the association between dysglycemia and early stages of AVC remains unclear. The aim was to examine the associations between stages of dysglycemia and signs of AVC among middle-aged individuals from the general population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study from the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) randomly enrolling 30,154 middle-aged men and women from six study sites in Sweden between 2013 and 2018. Glycemic status was based on the World Health Organization criteria (fasting blood glucose and/or HbA1c) and questionnaire-based answers on previous diseases and categorized as normoglycemia, prediabetes, newly detected diabetes and known diabetes. AVC was assessed on cardiac computed tomography (CT) and defined as evident or not. Results: Of 29,331 individuals with data on glycemic status and AVC available, mean age was 57.5 years and normoglycemia was present in 76%, prediabetes in 16%, newly detected diabetes in 3% and known diabetes in 5%. The prevalence of AVC increased progressively across glycemic categories, particularly in males (8%, 11%, 14% and 17%; P &lt; 0.01) compared to females (5%, 6%, 8% and 9%; P &lt; 0.01). There was an association with AVC already in the early stages of dysglycemia; prediabetes (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.02–1.31), newly detected diabetes (1.34 [1.05–1.71]) and known diabetes (1.61 [1.34–1.93]) after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, study site, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and hypertension. Conclusions: In this large, contemporary, and randomly selected population of middle-aged individuals, prediabetes, newly detected diabetes and known diabetes were all associated with CT-detected AVC. Further studies are warranted to investigate if managing dysglycemia, even in its early stages, may help slow down AVC progression.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wang, Anne and Östgren, Carl Johan and Norhammar, Anna and Kylhammar, David and Jernberg, Tomas and Lind, Lars and Söderberg, Stefan and Blomberg, Anders and Engström, Gunnar and Bergström, Göran and Settergren, Magnus and Shahim, Bahira}},
  issn         = {{1475-2840}},
  keywords     = {{Aortic stenosis; Aortic valve calcification; Diabetes; Dysglycemia; Epidemiology; Fasting glucose; HbA1c; Prediabetes; Prevention}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{Cardiovascular Diabetology}},
  title        = {{Aortic valve calcification across stages of dysglycemia in middle-aged individuals from the general population}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12933-025-02634-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s12933-025-02634-7}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}