ArticleFrontiers in endocrinology2026
Association between the fibrosis-4 index and carotid atherosclerosis in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Frontiers in endocrinology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between the fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index and diabetes-related vascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The primary outcome was carotid atherosclerosis (CAS), with lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) and diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) as secondary outcomes. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1,045 patients with T2DM. Logistic regression models were applied to assess associations between FIB-4 and the risks of CAS, LEAD, and DPN. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analyses were conducted to evaluate potential nonlinear relationships. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the discriminatory performance of FIB-4 for each outcome. Subgroup analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the associations across different patient strata. Results: Higher FIB-4 levels were associated with increased odds of CAS after adjustment for potential confounders. In the fully adjusted model, with the lowest FIB-4 quartile as the reference, odds ratios for CAS in the second, third, and fourth quartiles were 1.16 (95% CI: 0.79-1.72), 1.75 (95% CI: 1.19-2.58), and 2.04 (95% CI: 1.39-3.00), respectively. RCS analysis demonstrated a nonlinear association between FIB-4 and CAS risk (P < 0.001). Limited discriminatory performance of FIB-4 for CAS was observed, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.579 and an optimal cutoff value of 0.94. Weaker but similar associations were identified for LEAD and DPN, with slightly higher discriminatory ability for LEAD (AUC = 0.587) compared to DPN (AUC = 0.532). Subgroup analyses generally supported the stability of these findings. Conclusion: Elevated FIB-4 was significantly associated with higher risks of CAS and LEAD in patients with T2DM, with the strongest association observed for CAS. The association between FIB-4 and DPN did not reach statistical significance after multivariable adjustment. FIB-4 may serve as a simple and practical adjunct marker for risk stratification of diabetes-related macrovascular complications, particularly CAS, in T2DM.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.