Age-Related Changes in Lipid and Glucose Levels Associated with Drug Use and Mortality: An Observational Study

Abstract

Background: The pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus is complex and still unclear in some details. The main feature of diabetes mellitus is high serum glucose, and the question arises of whether there are other statistically observable dysregulations in laboratory measurements before the state of hyperglycemia becomes severe. In the present study, we aim to examine glucose and lipid profiles in the context of age, sex, medication use, and mortality. Methods: We conducted an observational study by analyzing laboratory data from 506,083 anonymized laboratory tests from 63,606 different patients performed by a regional laboratory in Slovenia between 2008 and 2019. Laboratory data-based results were evaluated in the context of medication use and mortality. The medication use database contains anonymized records of 1,632,441 patients from 2013 to 2018, and mortality data were obtained for the entire Slovenian population. Results: We show that the highest percentage of the population with elevated glucose levels occurs approximately 20 years later than the highest percentage with lipid dysregulation. Remarkably, two distinct inflection points were observed in these laboratory results. The first inflection point occurs at ages 55 to 59 years, corresponding to the greatest increase in medication use, and the second coincides with the sharp increase in mortality at ages 75 to 79 years. Conclusions: Our results suggest that medications and mortality are important factors affecting population statistics and must be considered when studying metabolic disorders such as dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia using laboratory data.

Profiling of patients with type 2 diabetes based on medication adherence data

“…These results align with previous research indicating that the prevalence of diabetes and its complications increases with age (56). Moreover, we found that the population of female individuals with diabetes reached its peak of prescribed medications a decade later than male individuals with diabetes, which is consistent with our previous findings on age-related changes in lipid and glucose levels associated with drug use and mortality (57). This observation underscores the importance of effective diabetes management, as diabetes-related mortality remains a significant public health (58, 59).…”

Lipotoxicity in a Vicious Cycle of Pancreatic Beta Cell Exhaustion

“…The elevated FFAs also block the glucose entry [ 47 ], and in a vicious cycle with glucolipotoxicity, beta cells cannot efficiently sense glucose [ 86 , 87 ]. This is one of the most prominent pathways to the pathologies of metabolic syndrome and T2DM associated with obesity and hyperlipidemia, which are statistically observable [ 6 ] and represent an even greater problem in modern societies.…”

“…The influence of lipids on glucose metabolism, particularly the role of ectopic lipid accumulation, requires a systemic approach in a complex circuit of the endocrine pancreas and its hormone-targeted tissues, especially the liver and muscle [ 3 , 4 ]. We and others have shown that hyperlipidemia may statistically precede hyperglycemia by several years [ 5 , 6 ], indicating that it is predictive of reduced glucose tolerance in certain individuals. In addition, insulin resistance and prediabetes, conditions closely associated with metabolic syndrome, are thought to be caused by disturbances in energy utilization and storage, which certainly include impaired lipid utilization.…”

An exploration on the machine-learning-based stroke prediction model

“…They can establish risk models by learning from existing medical test or survey data of patients. These models are used for disease prediction ( 12 , 13 ), diagnosis of disease severity ( 14 ), and evaluation of disease prognosis ( 15 , 16 ). Our study explored the value of machine-learning methods for stroke prediction.…”