Low baseline testosterone level has been associated with the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as insulin resistance and obesity. In addition to the absolute testosterone level, remarkable changes in testosterone level may have an acute effect on cardiovascular disease development and progression, which has been rarely investigated. In this study, we used a clinical dataset of 376 hypogonadal men whose testosterone levels were measured every six months for up to 11 years from a registry study in Germany, and conducted survival analyses to investigate the effect of testosterone changes since the last visit (time-varying) on the risk of cardiovascular events. Given the potential discrepancies in comorbidity conditions among patients with prior cardiovascular events and those without, all the analyses were stratified by patients' prior cardiovascular event status. We found the effects were not different among patients with prior cardiovascular events and those without. Regardless of patients' prior cardiovascular event status, patients with larger testosterone declines (≥3.12 nmol/L, 90th percentile) since the last visit were more likely to experience myocardial infarction. In conclusion, recent pronounced testosterone drop-offs may affect the risk of cardiovascular events among hypogonadal men. Future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm our exploratory study findings.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk; longitudinal; testosterone declines; time-varying.