Introduction and Hypothesis: White blood cell (WBC) count in healthy persons is reported to be associated with the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and all-cause death. The aim of our study was to determine whether WBC count predicts cardiovascular outcome, including heart failure and mortality, in consecutively registered patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods and Results: This was a post-hoc study from the Intensive Lipid and Blood Pressure Lowering and Cardiovascular Outcome Randomized Controlled Trial in Patients with CAD and type 2 diabetes. A total of 7,608 participants (mean age 68 years, 72% men) had WBC measured at baseline and were eligible for this study. Participants were followed for a mean of 1,328 days. We used Cox proportional hazards regression model to assess the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Participants with WBC count in the highest quartile had an adjusted HR for all-cause death of 1.66 (95% CI, 1.33 to 2.06, Figure) compared to those in the lowest quartile (WBC <5300 cells/µL). Additionally, similar findings were observed for the risk of acute myocardial infarction and heart failure; however, no significant difference was found for stroke risk (Figure).
Conclusions: In patients with CAD and type 2 diabetes, higher WBC count may have potential as a predictor for all-cause death, myocardial infarction, and heart failure but not stroke.
A. Kawabe: None. Y. Nakatani: None. S. Ono: None. Y. Miyashita: None. M. Matsumura: None. N. Banba: None. T. Yasu: None.