Time in Range Is Associated with Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Time in range (TIR) is an emerging metric of glycemic control and is reported to be associated with microvascular complications of diabetes. We sought to investigate the association of TIR obtained from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) with carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) as a surrogate marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods: Data from 2215 patients with type 2 diabetes were cross-sectionally analyzed. TIR of 3.9-10.0 mmol/L was evaluated with CGM. CIMT was measured using high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography and abnormal CIMT was defined as a mean CIMT ≥1.0 mm. Logistic regression models were used to examine the independent association of TIR with CIMT. Results: Compared with patients with normal CIMT, those with abnormal CIMT had significantly lower TIR (P < 0.001). The prevalence of abnormal CIMT progressively decreased across the categories of increasing TIR (P for trend <0.001). In a fully adjusted model controlling for traditional risk factor of CVD, each 10% increase in TIR was associated with 6.4% lower risk of abnormal CIMT. Stratifying the data by sex revealed that TIR was significantly associated with CIMT in males but not in females. In a subset of patients (n = 612) with complete data on diabetic retinopathy and albuminuria, we found that the relationship between TIR and CIMT remained to be significant, regardless of the status of microvascular complications. Conclusions: TIR is associated with CIMT in a large sample of patients with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a link between TIR and macrovascular disease.