For Diabetics With Heart Disease, Drugs are Just as Good as Surgery, Researchers Say
People with type 2 diabetes and heart disease do just as well by taking heart drugs rather than undergoing bypass surgery or angioplasty to unclog blocked arteries, according to new research.
The study by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh focused on more than 2,300 patients who were treated with angioplasty and placement of a stent along with heart drugs or given heart drugs alone, without surgery. Stents are tiny wire mesh tubes inserted into clogged arteries to prop them open and reduce blockages.
About 1.24 million people undergo angioplasty surgery in the United States each year.
Researchers found no difference in the rates of heart attack, stroke, or heart-related death in patients in the two treatment groups when the patients were reexamined after five years.
The study also evaluated the benefits and risks of two treatments for controlling blood sugar levels in type-2 diabetics who cannot use insulin. One study group was given insulin injections or sulfonylureas, a class of drugs which increase the body’s production of insulin, while the other study group took the heart drugs Avandia, Actos, or metforim.
There was no increased risk of heart attack in people taking the heart drugs compared to those who took the insulin injections and other class of insulin-producing drugs, researchers said.
Avandia, the controversial GlaxoSmithKline PLC diabetes pill, has for years been associated with increased risks of heart attack in users. In one study, researchers determined that Avandia caused a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and a 64 percent increase in the risk of death from all cardiovascular causes.
Heart disease is a leading cause of death among diabetics, since more than 65 percent of people with diabetes die from stroke or heart disease.
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