Comparison of Hemoglobin Alc, Glycated Albumin and Fasting Plasma Glucose for Prediction of Arterial Stiffness in Chinese Adults

OBJECTIVE: Although diabetes is closely related to cardiovascular disease, there are some disputes whether diabetes can promote arterial stiffness. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the predictive abilities of related-glycemic markers including fast plasma glucose (FPG), glycated hemoglobin (HbAlc) and glycated albumin (GA) for the arterial stiffness. METHODS: In the present study, 3640 subjects (2171 men, 1469 women) were enrolled, and anthropometrics, brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and other laboratory data were obtained. Spearman correlation and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships between FPG, HbAlc, GA and baPWV. RESULTS: Age, BMI, blood pressure, blood lipids, γ-Glutamyl transpeptidase, uric acid, hypersensitive C-reactive protein, baPWV, FPG, HbAlc, GA, estimated glomerular filtration rate and the incidences of diabetes and hypertension in high baPWV group were much greater than those in control group. Moreover, these above three glycemic markers were positively related to baPWV, and the correlation coefficient of HbAlc was the highest. After adjusting the above factors, HbAlc and FPG, but not GA, were still positively associated with baPWV regardless of diabetes status. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrated that, regardless of diabetes status, HbAlc and FPG were superior to GA for predicting arterial stiffness and HbAlc had the highest correlation with arterial stiffness, revealing that HbAlc may be regarded as an early diagnosis marker for atherosclerosis.