Impact of glycemic control on biventricular function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cardiac magnetic resonance tissue tracking study

BACKGROUND: Poor glycemic control is associated with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Nonetheless, the association between glycemic control and right ventricular (RV) function in T2DM has not been studied. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between glycemic control and biventricular function and assess whether one ventricular function was mediated by the other ventricular changes using cardiac magnetic resonance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 91 T2DM patients with normal ejection fraction were enrolled and divided into two groups according to glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) with a cut off 7%. Twenty controls were included. Biventricular ventricular strain parameters, including global peak systolic radial strain, global peak systolic circumferential strain (GCS), global peak systolic longitudinal strain (GLS), peak diastolic radial strain rate (RSR), peak diastolic circumferential strain rate (CSR) and peak diastolic longitudinal strain rate (LSR) were measured. RESULTS: Compared with controls, patients with both HbA1c < 7% and HbA1c ≥ 7% showed significantly lower LVGCS, LVGLS, LVCSR, LVLSR, RVGLS, RVRSR, RVCSR and RVLSR. Patients with HbA1c ≥ 7% elicited significantly higher RVGCS than controls and lower LVGLS, LVCSR, LVLSR, RVGLS and RVLSR. Multivariable linear regression demonstrated that HbA1c was independently associated with LVGLS, LVLSR, RVGLS and RVLSR after adjustment for traditional risk factors. LV (RV) was not statistically mediated by the other ventricular alterations. CONCLUSION: In T2DM patients, glycemic control was independently associated with impaired LV and RV systolic and diastolic function and these associations were not mediated by the other ventricular changes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13244-022-01357-7.