Association between plasma betaine levels and dysglycemia in patients with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND Dietary betaine intake was reported to associate with favorable profile of metabolic disorders. However, the role of circulating betaine in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with dysglycemia is still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the potential associations between plasma betaine levels and dysglycemia in CAD patients. METHODS Total 307 subjects were enrolled in this study with 165 CAD patients (57 with dysglycemia and 108 with normal glycemia) and 142 age and sex matched controls (CON). Fasting plasma betaine were detected using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS Plasma betaine were lower in normal glycemia CAD patients (28.29(22.38-35.73) μM) compared with healthy controls (29.75(25.32-39.15) μM), and were further decreased in CAD patients with dysglycemia (24.14(20.84-30.76) μM, p < 0.01). Betaine levels were inversely correlated with fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin%, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride and alanine aminotransferase levels (all, p ≤ 0.05). Subjects in the highest betaine tertile group had lowest frequency of CAD and dysglycemia (all, p < 0.01). Increased betaine levels were independently associated with low risk of dysglycemia in CAD after adjustment for multiple traditional risk factors (OR = 0.04, 95%CI: 0-0.37, p = 0.01). Furthermore, betaine had good performance at distinguishing CAD with dysglycemia from normal glycemia CAD (AUC = 0.62, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Plasma betaine levels are independently and inversely associated with dysglycemia in CAD after adjustment for multiple factors, and may be useful for risk stratification of dysglycemia in CAD.