People with a family history of diabetes are more at risk of narrowed coronary arteries, even if they do not have diabetes themselves.

There is a lot of interest in metabolic syndrome - a cluster of risk factors like high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol - at the current time. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University now delve a little deeper into the individual risk factors comprising the syndrome.

They carried out electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) on 5,912 adults with an average age of 53, none of whom had diabetes. EBCT reveals early build up of fatty plaque in the coronary arteries in a non-invasive fashion. They found that participants who had brothers or sisters with diabetes were 1.4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease and those who were obese were twice as likely to develop heart problems - as shown by their EBCT results. Such individuals, the researchers say, could greatly benefit from lifestyle changes and/or medication to reduce their heart disease risk.

Source

American College of Cardiology Meeting 1st April 2003