Association Between Fasting Glucose Variability in Young Adulthood and the Progression of Coronary Artery Calcification in Middle Age

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether intraindividual variability of fasting glucose (FG) in young adulthood is associated with coronary artery calcification (CAC) progression in middle age. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We included 2,256 CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development Study in Young Adults) participants with CAC assessment by computed tomography scanner at baseline (2000–2001) and 10 years later (2010–2011). CAC progression was assessed for each individual as the difference of logarithmic CAC scores at follow-up and baseline (log[CAC (follow-up) + 1] − log[CAC (baseline) + 1]). FG variability was defined by the coefficient of variation about the mean FG (FG-CV), the SD of FG (FG-SD), and the average real variability of FG (FG-ARV) during the 10-year follow-up. We investigated the association between FG variability and CAC progression with adjustment for demographics, clinical risk factors, mean FG level, change in FG level, diabetes incidence, and medication use. RESULTS After multivariable adjustment, 1-SD increment in FG-CV was associated with worse progression of CAC as demonstrated as percent change in CAC, with incident CAC 5.9% (95% CI 1.0, 10.7) and any CAC progression 6.7% (95% CI 2.3, 11.1) during 10 years. Similar findings were also observed in FG-SD and FG-ARV. CONCLUSIONS Higher FG variability during young adulthood was associated with greater CAC progression in middle age, suggesting its value in predicting risk for subclinical coronary artery diseases.