Serum fructosamine and risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality: a 24-year prospective population-based study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The association between fructosamine and cardiovascular complications is not well established. We sought to evaluate whether serum fructosamine may be a risk factor for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in nondiabetic subjects.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Fructosamine and other cardiovascular risk factors were measured in a sample of 1909 nondiabetic middle-aged men without a known history of coronary heart disease (CHD) at baseline. Associations between baseline fructosamine levels and fatal CHD and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, and all-cause mortality were estimated using a Cox regression analysis, progressively adjusted for potential confounders. Mean baseline age was 52 years and 30% were smokers. During a median follow-up of 24 years (interquartile range: 18-26 years), 177 (9%) fatal CHD, 289 (15%) fatal CVD, and 728 (38%) all-cause mortality events occurred. In analyses adjusted for several conventional risk factors (i.e., age, systolic blood pressure, smoking, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol), the hazard ratios (HRs) comparing top vs bottom quartile of serum fructosamine levels resulted: 1.33 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.82; p = 0.078) for CHD death and 0.93 (0.72, 1.19; p = 0.567) for CVD death, and 1.04 (0.89, 1.22; p = 0.617) for all-cause mortality. In similar comparisons, further adjustments for body mass index, alcohol consumption, C-reactive protein, and fasting plasma glucose did not materially change these estimates. The exclusion of participants with prevalent CVD at baseline yielded similar results.

CONCLUSION: In our cohort of nondiabetic men without known CHD, baseline fructosamine levels were not independently associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Further studies are warranted to confirm these results in other populations.