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Intense diabetes therapy didn't cut heart problems
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-07 20:56 Both studies targeted diabetes patients middle-aged or older who had a heart problem or other heart risk factors. Doctors used a variety of diabetes drugs and insulin to try to get blood sugar levels down - to less than 6 in the US study and 6.5 or lower in the international study. The Australian study had more than 11,000 participants from Asia, Australia, Europe and Canada; the US study had 10,000. The US study was stopped after 3 1/2 years because of more deaths in the aggressively treated group: 257 deaths compared to 203 for standard care. The researchers said they haven't found a reason for the difference. Everyone was switched to standard treatment, and the researchers are continuing to follow them. In a statement, Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, said that severely lowering blood sugar appears to be too risky for diabetes patients at higher risk for heart problems. Her institute helped pay for the study. Dr. Alvin Powers of Vanderbilt University said the Australian study was reassuring because it showed blood sugar levels could be safely lowered below the current targets, in contrast to the US results. He said reducing kidney complications is significant because it would might mean fewer people needing dialysis or a kidney transplant. "I think this affirms that 7 (blood sugar level) should remain our goal - but most people don't reach that goal," he said. The Australian study was funded by the government and diabetes drugmaker Servier. The US study was paid for by National Institutes of Health, and various companies provided diabetes drugs. A number of researchers in both studies report receiving grant support or frees from drugmakers. |
