A Non-Linear Association of Triglyceride Glycemic Index With Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Among Patients With Hypertension

Dan Zhou; Xiao-Cong Liu; Lo Kenneth; Yu-Qing Huang; Ying-Qing Feng

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2021.778038

A Non-Linear Association of Triglyceride Glycemic Index With Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Among Patients With Hypertension

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Jan 27:8:778038. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2021.778038. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Dan Zhou¹, Xiao-Cong Liu¹, Lo Kenneth^{1

2

3}, Yu-Qing Huang¹, Ying-Qing Feng¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
² Department of Epidemiology, Centre for Global Cardio-Metabolic Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States.
³ Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

Background: To investigate the association between insulin resistance (IR), quantified by triglyceride glycemic index (TyG index), cardiovascular mortality (CVM), and all-cause mortality (ACM) in hypertension patients.

Methods: We included 8,554 patients with hypertension aged ≥18 years old from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). The status of CVM and ACM of participants were followed through December 31, 2015. Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to evaluate the relationship between TyG index, CVM, and ACM.

Results: During a median of 82 months follow-up, 1,882 mortality cases had occurred, 434 of which were due to cardiovascular disease. The patients with hypertension with TyG ≥ 10 were older, had a higher chance of being smokers, were obese, had higher blood pressure, and had risk or had cardiovascular disease. In Cox proportional hazards models, compared with the patients with TyG <8, those with TyG ≥ 10 had 56% increased risk for ACM. On the other hand, no significant difference for CVM between the four groups were observed. In the restricted cubic spline regression models, the relationship between TyG index and ACM was non-linear. Subgroup analysis showed non-linear relationship between TyG index and ACM in elderly patients aged ≥60 years. The cut-off value of TyG for ACM was 9.45, and those with higher or lower than 9.45 had more risk of ACM. When TyG index was more than 9.52, the risk for CVM would increase among the whole group. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed patients with TyG ≥ 10 had higher risk of ACM and CVM (Log rank P < 0.05).

Conclusions: We demonstrated that the association between ACM and TyG index in elderly patients with hypertension aged ≥60 years was non-linear. However, TyG index was only more than 9.52, hence, the risk for CVM would increase among the whole hypertension group.

Keywords: all-cause mortality; cardiovascular mortality; hypertension; insulin resistance; triglyceride-glucose index.