Associations Between Diabetes, Arterial Stiffness and Fibulin-1 in Patients Undergoing Heart- and Vascular Surgery?

Is There an Association Between the Presence of Diabetes, the Degree of Arterial Stiffness and a New Plasma Marker for Vascular Elasticity, Fibulin-1 in Patients Undergoing Heart- and Vascular Surgery?

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is frequently appearing in patients with cardiovascular disease and these patients, as a consequence herby, has a lesser prognosis. DM is often related to increased arterial stiffness and hypertension. The investigators thesis is that DM and pre-diabetes is prevalent in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery and to some extend is under-diagnosed. At the same time the investigators imagine that DM is closely related to the degree of arterial stiffness, and that these parameters are closely related to a new biochemical marker, fibulin-1.

The investigators aim to describe the prevalence of type 2 DM and dysmetabolism in patients admitted to the hospital to undergo cardiovascular surgery and besides that to investigate if there is a connection between the degree of the dysmetabolism and arterial disease, by studying arterial stiffness and by measuring a new biochemical marker, fibulin-1, which the investigators newly have identified. The results of this project will give us a measure for the quantity of unknown DM in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery and furthermore tell us more in terms of the connections between a newly identified plasma arterial marker, arterial stiffness and diabetes.

Inclusion Criteria:

• >18 years of age
• undergoing heart- or vascular surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

• Physical or mental disability not enabling participation in the study