Predicting the Presence and Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Using Surrogate Markers of Insulin Resistance: A Cross-Sectional Study

This was an analytical cross-sectional retrospective study involving patients with suspected CAD who underwent coronary angiography between December 2018 and May 2023. The information was obtained from patients referred to the outpatient cardiovascular clinic (Professor Kojuri Cardiology Clinic, Shiraz, Iran, www.kojuriclinic.com). Data was extracted from Professor Kojuri Cardiology Clinic database, including patient's information about the clinical history, presence or absence of specific diseases, angiography/angioplasty results, medications, and laboratory values.

A total of 14,708 patients who had undergone coronary angiography at least once were examined. After applying exclusion criteria, 1017 eligible cases were selected for data analysis.

The following data was recorded for the included patients: demographic data, past medical history (such as DM, hypertension, etc.), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, weight and height, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and serum creatinine (Cr). Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight (Kg) divided by the square of height (m2). Obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30 Kg/m2.

Laboratory values were selected from the time before angiography, and if not available, from the time shortly after the angiography. This helped us find those values which could best represent the metabolic state of patients at the time of angiography, while reducing the confounding effect of statin use.