Association between Triglyceride Glucose Index and the Risk of Peripheral Artery Disease

Background: The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index has been used as a simple surrogate marker of insulin resistance, an independent predictor of atherosclerotic vascular diseases. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the TyG index and peripheral artery disease (PAD). Methods: A total of 3375 participants with comleted TyG and ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI) records were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004. The TyG index was calculated as ln[triglycerides (mg/dL)×glucose (mg/dL)/2], and the presence of PAD was defined as ABPI ≤ 0.9. Results: The participants were 60.1±12.8 year old and 51.3% (1730) were male. The prevelance of PAD was 7.1% (238). Compared with the reference lowest quartile of TyG index, the highest quartile was associated with 1.66-fold (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-2.43; p=0.008) risk of PAD. After adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyles, and cardiometabolic factors, the multivariate-adjusted OR and 95% CI were 1.55 (1.03-2.37; p=0.039) or participants within the highest quartile. TyG index was also independently and linearly associated with higher presence of PAD (OR 1.27 [1.02-1.56]; p=0.027). Subgroup analysis showed that the association between TyG index and the risk of PAD was still consistant across groups except for obesity. Conclusions: Higher TyG index was significantly associated with the higher risk of PAD, which could be a marker of PAD.