Associations of coronary artery calcification and carotid intima-media thickness with plasma concentrations of vascular calcification inhibitors in type 2 diabetic patients

Abstract Vascular calcification is frequently accompanied by intima-media thickening, but the associations among these atherosclerotic features and bone-related peptides in diabetic patients are unclear. We enrolled 168 type 2 diabetic patients and 40 non-diabetic subjects consecutively admitted to our hospital. Mean intima-media thickness (mean-IMT) in common carotid arteries was measured by B-mode ultrasonography. Agatston coronary artery calcium score (CACS) was obtained using multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT). Plasma bone-related peptides osteopontin and osteoprotegerin levels were measured. Diabetic patients had higher mean-IMT ( p =0.0002) and log(CACS+1) ( p p =0.0004) and bone-related peptides ( p p p p p p