Variability of risk factors and diabetes complications

Table 3 Summary of the studies showing an effect of body weight, uric acid, and heart rate variability on the development of complications in patients with diabetes

Risk factor	Type of variability assessed	Short or long term variability	Metrics used	Type of study	Sample size	Significantly associated outcomes	Follow-up length	References
Body weight	Visit-to-visit	Long-term	Average successive variability	Post-hoc analysis of 3 trials	6408	Composite of cardiovascular events	3.9/4/4.9 years	[29]
			Average successive variability	Post-hoc analysis of trial	10251	MACE, heart failure, death, and microvascular events	3.5 years	[30]
			Coefficient of variation	Observational cohort	1319	All-cause mortality in patients > 65 years	10 years	[31]
Uric acid	Visit-to-visit	Long-term	Standard deviation	Retrospective cohort study	10163	eGRF decline	24 months	[36]
Heart rate	24-h ECG Holter, expiration/inspiration (E/I) ratio during deep breathing, acceleration index (AI) of R-R interval in response to head-up tilt	Short-term	Low frequency	Observational cohort	61	Intima-media thickness	8 years	[41]
	Supine deep breathing 12-lead electrocardiograms	Short-term	Standard deviation of consecutive RR intervals	Observational cohort	1416	Coronary artery calcium	6.0 ± 0.5 years	[42]
	Supine deep breathing 12-lead electrocardiograms	Short-term	Coefficient of variance for 100 R–R intervals	Observational cohort	8917 (3089 with diabetes)	Sudden cardiac death	5.2 years	[43]
	24-h ECG Holter	Short-term	Standard deviation of NN intervals	Observational cohort	240	All-cause mortality	15.5 years	[44]