Type 2 diabetes mellitus: a high-risk condition for cardiovascular disease irrespective of the different degrees of obesity

Background: Measurement of body weight with body mass index (BMI) is often utilized to stratify cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Aim: To determine CVD risk profile and disease burden in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) across different categories of body weight as defined by BMI. Design: Prospective observational study. Methods: CVD risk including metabolic syndrome (MetS) and prevalence of macrovascular complications were determined for each category of body weight as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification. Results: A total of 390 subjects were included in this study of which 35.9 were non-obese (BMI < 30 kg/m(2)). Although increasing obesity as defined by BMI was associated with higher prevalence of central abdominal obesity, hypertension and MetS (P < 0.05), dyslipidaemia and macrovascular complications were not significantly different across the various body weight categories (P = NS). Similar observation was seen in non-obese (BMI < 30 kg/m(2)) and obese subjects (BMI >30 kg/m(2)). Among non-obese (including normal weight) cohort, the majority of these subjects had adverse CVD risk profile including presence of at least two co-existing risk factors. Conclusions: Subjects with T2DM possess adverse CVD risk factors with significant burden of macrovascular disease irrespective of their baseline body weight.