Association between triglyceride glucose index and risk of cerebrovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, which is a new surrogate indicator of insulin resistance (IR), is thought to be associated with many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, but its relationship with cerebrovascular disease is still controversial. METHODS: The PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Medline databases were searched until March 2022 to evaluate the association between the TyG index and cerebrovascular disease risk. A random‒effects model was used to calculate the effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: A total of 19 cohort studies and 10 case‒control/cross‒sectional studies were included in our study, which included 11,944,688 participants. Compared with a low TyG index, a higher TyG index increased the risk of cerebrovascular disease (RR/HR = 1.22, 95% CI [1.14, 1.30], P< 0.001; OR = 1.15, 95% CI [1.07, 1.23], P< 0.001). Furthermore, the results of the dose-response analysis of the cohort study demonstrated that the risk of cerebrovascular disease increased by 1.19 times per 1 mg/dl increment of the TyG index (relative risk = 1.19, 95% CI [1.13,1.25], P< 0.001). CONCLUSION: TyG index is related to cerebrovascular disease. More data and basic research are needed to confirm the association. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12933-022-01664-9.