Diabetes and Heart Disease: A DEADLY Combination, Experts Warn
Experts warn that diabetes and heart disease can be a deadly combination. Patients with type 2 diabetes have two to three times the heart disease risk of the general population. A global research conducted by Dr William B. White, a professor in the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Centre at UConn Health, found that patients with Type 2 diabetes admitted into the hospital for congestive heart failure face a one in four chance of dying over the next 18 months.
The study, published in the ADA journal Diabetes Care, shows a grimmer picture for diabetes patients with severe heart disease. There are also concerns that some of the medications that help control blood sugar may also damage the heart. Even insulin, a popular drug that helps regulate blood sugar levels, is also known to contribute to heart disease.
The clinical trial involved 5,380 patients with type 2 diabetes after the patient had a major but nonfatal acute coronary syndrome such as a heart attack, or hospitalisation for unstable angina. They were randomly assigned to take either a diabetes drug or a placebo. Participants were followed for three years, in which their progress was tracked.
The primary findings suggest that there is no difference between the patients who took the drug and a placebo medication in the major endpoint of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke.
"It’s a very dramatic result," says White. "A person with type 2 diabetes requiring hospitalization for heart failure in the EXAMINE trial was a harbinger of a very poor outcome." the researchers wrote.
They have teamed up with collaborators from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s hospital to find patterns of proteins known as biomarkers in the blood that might provide early signals for elevated risk of a second cardiovascular event, including heart failure and death.
Source of this article:
Diabetes Care