Screening for treatable left ventricular abnormalities in diabetic patients.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with diabetes mellitus. Attempts to improve this statistic tend to focus primarily on the prevention of coronary artery disease. However, coronary artery disease is not the sole cause of cardiac death in diabetic patients; left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are also implicated and, unlike coronary artery disease, are ideal targets for screening. The treatment of left ventricular abnormalities, even when these are asymptomatic, is associated with prognostic benefit. Prescreening diabetic patients with plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) may permit identification of those who are likely to have left ventricular abnormalities, so that they may be put forward for echocardiography and receive targeted therapy.