## 3 Results
### Correlates of HbA1c as Qualitative Variable  
Routinely performed admission HbA1c was used to identify patients with no history of T2D (N-HbA1c \(<\) 5.70%, \(n\) = 875), with T2D (T2D, HbA1c \(\geq\) 6.50%, \(n\) = 320), and patients with HbA1c between 5.70% to 5.99% (5.70-5.99 group; \(n\) = 290) and WHO-preT2D group with HbA1c between 6.00-6.49% (\(n\) = 196). The distribution of risk factors among the study subjects in the HbA1c categories are shown in Table 1.  
Figure 1: Prevalence of no-T2D, preT2D, and T2D according to ADA and WHO criteria.  
Patients in the group of HbA1c 5.7-5.99 were more frequently females (<0.001), hypertensive (<0.001) and older (<0.001), and had significantly higher glycemia at admission (<0.001), ESR (<0.001), and lower hemoglobin (<0.001) than those in the N-HbA1c group (Table 1). Patients in the WHO-preT2D group were more frequently females (<0.001), hypertensive (<0.001), and older (<0.001), and had significantly higher glycemia (<0.001), BNP (<0.001), fibrinogen (<0.05), and ESR (<0.001) at admission and lower hemoglobin (<0.001) than those in the N-HbA1c group (Table 1). Patients in the T2D group were more frequently females (<0.001), hypertensive (<0.001), dyslipidemia (<0.001) and older (<0.001), and had significantly higher CRP (<0.001), neutrophils (<0.001), glycemia (<0.001), BNP (<0.001), fibrinogen (<0.001), creatinine (<0.001), GGT (<0.001), and ESR (<0.001) at admission and lower hemoglobin (<0.001) than those in the N-HbA1c group (Table 1)  
Prevalence of preT2D and T2D according to age intervals is reported in Figure 2.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l} \hline  & **HbA1c \(\mathbf{<5.7\%}\)** & **HbA1c \(\mathbf{5.7\%}\)** & **HbA1c \(\mathbf{6-6.49\%}\)** & **HbA1c \(\mathbf{>6.49\%}\)** \\ \hline Total population & & 875 (52) & 290 (17) & 196 (12) & 320 (19) \\ \hline Females & 183 (21) & 99 (34) & 71 (36) & 111 (35) \\ \hline Males & 692 (79) & 191 (66) & 120 (64) & 209 (65) \\ \hline Age & & & & \\ \hline  & \textless{}66 years (50 th percentile) & 485 (55) & 120 (41) & 68 (35) & 117 (37) \\ \hline  & 66–77 years (75 th percentile) & 221 (25) & 76 (26) & 57 (29) & 97 (30) \\ \hline  & \textgreater{}77 years & 167 (20) & 94 (32) & 71 (36) & 106 (33) \\ \hline CV risk factors & & & & \\ \hline Hypertension & 431 (50) & 177 (61) & 129 (66) & 220 (69) \\ \hline Dyslipidemia & 320 (37) & 121 (42) & 79 (40) & 156 (49) \\ \hline Current/ex smoking habit & 419 (48) & 111 (38) & 78 (40) & 108 (34) \\ \hline Ejection fraction (\%) & 46 \(\pm\) 9 & 44 \(\pm\) 9 & 44 \(\pm\) 9 & 44 \(\pm\) 9 \\ \hline Body mass index (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 26 \(\pm\) 4 & 27 \(\pm\) 4 & 27 \(\pm\) 5 & 29 \(\pm\) 5 \\ \hline Laboratory parameters & & & & \\ \hline Creatinine (mg/dL) & 1 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 1.1 \(\pm\) 0.6 & 1.2 \(\pm\) 0.7 & 1.4 \(\pm\) 1.1 \\ \hline Glycemia (mg/dL) & 111 \(\pm\) 29 & 125 \(\pm\) 37 & 141 \(\pm\) 48 & 195 \(\pm\) 85 \\ \hline Brain natriuretic peptide (pg/mL) & 211 \(\pm\) 353 & 270 \(\pm\) 447 & 353 \(\pm\) 665 & 350 \(\pm\) 514 \\ \hline Fibrinogen (mg/dL) & 327 \(\pm\) 110 & 333 \(\pm\) 110 & 354 \(\pm\) 111 & 358 \(\pm\) 115 \\ \hline Hemoglobin (g/dL) & 14 \(\pm\) 2 & 13 \(\pm\) 2 & 13 \(\pm\) 2 & 13 \(\pm\) 2 \\ \hline C reactive protein (mg/dL) & 2 \(\pm\) 4 & 2.1 \(\pm\) 4 & 2.5 \(\pm\) 5 & 2.7 \(\pm\) 4 \\ \hline Gamma glutamyltransferase (UI/L) & 31 \(\pm\) 36 & 31 \(\pm\) 27 & 33 \(\pm\) 36 & 36 \(\pm\) 32 \\ \hline Monocytes (10\({}^{9}\)/L) & 0.7 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 0.7 \(\pm\) 0.4 & 0.7 \(\pm\) 0.5 & 0.7 \(\pm\) 0.4 \\ \hline Neutrophphils (10\({}^{9}\)/L) & 8.6 \(\pm\) 3.6 & 8.8 \(\pm\) 3.7 & 9.2 \(\pm\) 3.7 & 9.6 \(\pm\) 4.2 \\ \hline Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (mm/h) & 19 \(\pm\) 18 & 25 \(\pm\) 21 & 25 \(\pm\) 20 & 27 \(\pm\) 24 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters according to HbA1c intervals.