Tight Glucose Control Slashes Heart Risks

Frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose that guides the use of at least three insulin injections a day can lower the risk of heart events by about 50% in people with type 1 diabetes, according to the results of a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego (ADA, CA, USA) in June 2005.

A multicenter study called the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) found in 1993 that intensive glucose control greatly reduces the eye, nerve, and kidney damage of type 1 diabetes as well as the risk of atherosclerosis. Now researchers have found that what is more impressive is the long-lasting value of tight glucose control.

In the new results announced at the ADA meeting, involving 1,375 volunteers who continued to participate in the study, the intensely treated patients had less than half the number of cardiovascular events found in the conventionally treated group of patients. Cardiovascular events included heart attacks, stroke, angina, coronary artery disease requiring angioplasty, or coronary bypass surgery.

"The risk of heart disease is about 10 times higher in people with type 1 diabetes than in people without diabetes. It's now clear that high blood glucose levels contribute to the development of heart disease,” observed David Nathan, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, USA), co-chair of the DCCT trial and the EDIC (Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications) study follow-up.

"There is a strong and growing body of evidence that everyone with diabetes gains from strict blood glucose control,” noted Catherine Cowie, Ph.D., who oversees EDIC for the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Bethesda, MD, USA), which funded the studies.





Related Links:
Mass. General Hospital
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