Giorda et al. sought to study risk factors for recurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in type 2 diabetic patients regularly attending hospital-based diabetes clinics. The analysis was conducted in two different cohorts: 1- 2,788 patients with a CVD event at enrolment (cohort A) and 2- 844 patients developing a first event during the observation period (cohort B). During the 4-year follow-up, the age-adjusted incidence rate of recurrent CVD per 1,000 person-years in the cohort A was 72.7 in men and 32.5 in women and in the cohort B the incidence rate was 40.1 in men and 22.4 in women. In multivariate models, age, male sex, and use of insulin (alone or in combination with oral agents) were independent predictors of recurrent CVD events in the cohort A. In the cohort B, triglyceride concentrations were the only metabolic variable that independently predicted a recurrent CVD event. In both cohorts, a prior CVD event, especially myocardial infarction, was the strongest predictor of recurrent CVD. These results underline the importance of closely following type 2 diabetic patients who have had a CVD event.
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