ADA urges heart failure screening in patients with diabetes

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) now recommends that people with diabetes undergo a yearly screening to detect for early heart failure, even if they do not currently have any symptoms. The American College of Cardiology endorsed the new guidance, which calls for testing to detect elevated B-type natriuretic peptide levels and/or unusual levels of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin, which are known biomarkers of advanced stage heart failure in individuals with diabetes who are asymptomatic.

“Addition of relatively inexpensive biomarker testing as part of the standard of care may help to refine [heart failure] risk prediction in individuals with diabetes,” ADA noted in its consensus report in Diabetes Care. “Substantial data indicat[e] the ability of these biomarkers to identify those in stage A or B [heart failure] at highest risk of progressing to symptomatic [heart failure] or death.”

ADA also said targeted intervention with a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor or multidisciplinary treatment—including smoking cessation, nutrition, weight loss, and other specialized care—might slow or prevent this progression.