ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cardiovascular Endocrinology
This article is part of the Research TopicCommunity Series in: Clinical and Genetic Determinants of Diabetes and Complications - Volume IIView all articles
Fasting Glucagon as an Independent risk indicator for CAD in Patient with Type 2 Diabetes
Provisionally accepted
Linlin Kong
Lina ChangJiamin NieYian GuXin WangSiyu YanWantong HanHequn SangShaofang Tang
Ming Liu
Qing He*- Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
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Objective: To investigate the association between fasting glucagon levels and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 1,739 hospitalized T2DM patients, categorized into T2DM alone and T2DM with CAD (T2DM&CAD) groups. Fasting glucagon levels and clinical characteristics were collected. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess this association, with progressive adjustment for confounders. Results: In female patients, fasting glucagon levels were significantly higher in the T2DM&CAD group than in the T2DM alone group (13.33 vs. 11.52 pmol/L, P < 0.01). After full adjustment, each 1-SD increase was associated with a 49.2% higher CAD risk (OR: 1.492; 95% CI: 1.099-2.026; P < 0.05). No significant association was found in male patients. Conclusion: Elevated fasting glucagon is an independent risk indicator for CAD in women with T2DM, but not in men. These findings highlight the potential value of glucagon monitoring in T2DM management, especially for women, and support exploring glucagon-pathway-targeted therapies to reduce cardiovascular complications.
Keywords: Cardiometabolic risk, complication, Coronary Artery Disease, Glucagon, type 2 diabetes mellitus
Received: 19 Nov 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kong, Chang, Nie, Gu, Wang, Yan, Han, Sang, Tang, Liu and He. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qing He
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