Prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in an admixed population of patients with type 1 diabetes. Lessons from a pioneer multicentre study in Brazil

AIMS: To evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) and its associated factors in Brazilian patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Methods: This cross-sectional, multicentre study was conducted in 14 public clinics in ten Brazilian cities. From 1760 patients, 1712 were included (97.3 %): 953 females (55.7 %), 930 (54.3 %) Caucasians, aged 29.9 +/- 11.9 years and with diabetes duration of 15.4 +/- 9.2 years. CAN was evaluated using cardiovascular autonomic reflex tests. Results: The prevalence of CAN was 23.4 %. Multivariable hierarchical logistic regression showed CAN associated with age, smoking, lower socioeconomic status, higher yearly medical appointments, insulin therapeutic regimens, higher levels of HbA1c, total cholesterol, uric acid, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate, presence of retinopathy, diabetic kidney disease and a tendency to be associated with severe hypoglycemia. Lower health-related quality of life was also found in univariate analysis in these patients. Conclusions: Patients with T1D presented an important prevalence of CAN that was associated with other diabetes-related chronic complications, and also with demographic, clinical and laboratorial traditional risk factors. Considering lack of formal policy, our data could be used for guiding public health approach to awareness and CAN's screening, diagnosis and clinical management in patients with T1D in Brazil.