Silent coronary artery disease in type 2 diabetes: a narrative review on epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical studies

Abstract

Silent coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the manifestations of heart disease that particularly affects subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). From a clinical point of view, silent CAD represents a constant challenge for the diabetologist, who has to decide whether a patient could or could not be screened for this disease. In the present narrative review, several aspects of silent CAD are considered: the epidemiology of the disease, the associated risk factors, and main studies conducted, in the last 20 years, especially aimed to demonstrate the usefulness of the screening of silent CAD, to improve cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes.

TFPI2 suppresses the interaction of TGF-β2 pathway regulators to promote endothelial–mesenchymal transition in diabetic nephropathy

“…Endothelial cells derived from blood vessels take primary responsibility for maintaining vascular homeostasis 45 . Endothelial dysfunction is a primary lesion in diabetes, resulting in multiple vascular complications 46 . We speculated that TFPI2 might be involved in the pathogenesis of DN through regulating endothelial cell injury.…”