The ECG Vertigo in Diabetes and Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy
Figure 2
Presence of silent myocardial ischemia in the resting ECG of a middle-aged (50 years), clinically asymptomatic female patient with type 2 diabetes. Mean duration of diabetes was 4 years and the patient was under oral antidiabetic medication with an HbA1c <7%. The patient was obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2), with central fat distribution (waist circumference > 88 cm), without a history of hypertension, or of coronary heart disease, but with dyslipidemia and presence of microalbuminuria. She smoked 25 packs of cigarettes/year. Cardiac autonomic functional testing revealed increased cardiac sympathetic activity and parasympathetic withdrawal.
