Elevated Fasting Plasma Cortisol Is Associated with Ischemic Heart Disease and Its Risk Factors in People with Type 2 Diabetes: The Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study

Increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may underlie the metabolic syndrome, but whether circulating cortisol levels predict cardiovascular end points is less clear. People with type 2 diabetes are at increased cardiovascular disease risk and thus are suitable to study associations of plasma cortisol with cardiovascular risk.