Underrecognition of Diabetes in Cardiology Practice

Joining Dr. Alan Brown is Revathi Balakrishnan, MD, MPH, a general cardiology fellow at NYU and winner of the NLA Young Investigator Competition. Dr. Balakrishnan's research, titled "Prevalence of unrecognized prediabetes, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in patients undergoing non-urgent PCI," found that nearly 1 out of every 10 patients admitted to the NYU cardiac catheterization lab had diabetic hemoglobin A1c levels (6.5 and over) without a prior diagnosis of diabetes. An even larger proportion had prediabetes (57%) and metabolic syndrome (54%). Put another way, only 30% of the patients undergoing PCI had a normal glycemic status on admission. Drs. Balakrishnan and Brown reflect on these concerning results and discuss the need for a call to action among preventive cardiologists.