Patients with type 2 diabetes are at high risk for atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular disease (CVD). Insulin resistance is related to the elevated risk of CVD.
Evidence suggests that hyperglycemia may contribute to endothelial dysfunction and ultimately lead to accelerated atherogenesis.
Many individuals with type 2 diabetes are not diagnosed until they have experienced a cardiovascular event. People with impaired glucose tolerance or IGT (considered “prediabetes”) who do not have chronic hyperglycemia have a twofold increase in the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with normal subjects. Patients with type 2 diabetes have a threefold increased risk of CAD.
In an effort to decrease the high level of morbidity and mortality associated with type 2 diabetes and to facilitate early diagnosis, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines now include a lower fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level for diagnosis of diabetes: >=126 mg/dL, reduced from the previous level of 140 mg/dL. The ADA also recently reduced the cutpoint for impaired fasting glucose (IFG) to 100 mg/dL, and redefined IFG as an FPG of 100 to 125 mg/dL.

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