Serum zinc level and coronary heart disease events in patients with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE Low serum zinc level may predispose nondiabetic subjects to cardiovascular diseases. Our aim was to investigate whether serum zinc level predicts coronary heart disease (CHD) events in subjects with type 2 diabetes RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The original study population consisted of 1,059 patients with type 2 diabetes, aged 45-64 years. Mean duration of diabetes was 8 years. Serum zinc values were available from 1,050 subjects. CHD mortality and the incidence of nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) were assessed in a 7-year follow-up. RESULTS During the follow-up, 156 patients died from CHD and 254 patients had a fatal or nonfatal MI. Patients with serum zinc concentration < or = 14.1 micromol/l at baseline had a higher risk for death from CHD than patients with serum zinc level > 14.1 micromol/l (20.8 and 12.8%, respectively; P = 0.001) The risks for fatal or nonfatal MI were 30.5 and 22.0%, respectively (P = 0.005). In Cox regression analyses, low serum zinc concentration was significantly associated with CHD mortality (relative risk [RR] 1.7, P = 0.002) and all CHD events (RR 1.37, P = 0.030), even after adjustment for confounding variables. CONCLUSIONS In this large cohort of type 2 diabetic patients, low serum zinc level was an independent risk factor for CHD events.