A study published in Cardiovascular Diabetology shows how detailed analysis of lipoproteins and glycoproteins can help predict cardiovascular risk in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, the research team identified plasma alterations associated with increased risk in these patients.
This collaborative work was led by teams from CIBER in its areas of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM) and Physiology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), at the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau) and the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV).
The study is part of the LIPOCAT project and analysed a total of 933 patients with T2D from four Spanish cohorts. “Traditional risk factors do not predict cardiovascular events with sufficient accuracy in people with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to evaluate whether incorporating advanced lipoprotein profiling via MRI could enhance the predictive capacity of conventional models,” explains Dr Dídac Mauricio, principal investigator of the study, affiliated with IR Sant Pau and CIBERDEM.
The results show that certain lipoprotein alterations, such as triglyceride content in remnant and LDL particles, along with inflammatory markers, are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events. “Incorporating these measures into traditional models significantly improves predictive accuracy, with an increase in the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) up to 0.76 in the internal validation cohort,” highlights Dr Núria Amigó, first author of the study and CIBER researcher at the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV).
These findings could have clinical implications by enabling better cardiovascular risk stratification in patients with type 2 diabetes and allowing for a more personalised management approach. “Advanced lipoprotein profiling technology could become a key tool in improving cardiovascular prevention in this population,” concludes Dr Amigó.
The study involved researchers from Hospital de Sant Pau and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova (Lleida), IDIAP Jordi Gol, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona), and Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine. It was led by Dr Dídac Mauricio.
Article Reference:
Amigó N, Castelblanco E, Julve J, et al. Advanced Serum Lipoprotein and Glycoprotein Profiling for Cardiovascular Event Prediction in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: The LIPOCAT Study. Cardiovasc Diabetol (2025) 24:88. DOI: 10.1186/s12933-025-02636-5.
