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Sulfonylurea therapy at high risk of cardiovascular complications
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the cells in the liver, muscles and fat fail to use insulin properly.
Eventually, the amount of insulin produced by pancreas is under the body’s needs. The result is
predictable: while the body cells are starved of energy, the concentration glucose in the blood
increases. In the long-term, high blood glucose damages blood vessels and nerves leading to major
conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, stroke, gum infections, nerve problems and amputation.
Because patients with type 2 diabetes experience an insulin deficit, they are often prescribed drugs,
called sulfonylureas, that boost the production of this hormone.
A conclusion of 1970 report suggested a possible link between sulfonylureas and cardiovascular
complications. But the drugs have remained a basic pillar of diabetes therapy as since then no other
studies have confirmed this association.
This controversial belief that sulfonylurea drugs boost mortality in diabetes sufferers recently gets
support from a new study by Canadian researchers.
Previously, this team from University of Alberta in Edmonton, had shown that metformin, another
anti-diabetes drug that works by increasing the body's levels of insulin, confers a survival advantage
over the sulfonylureas. Now, by compiling data for 5795 patients who were prescribed an oral anti-diabetic
drug between 1991 and1999, they concluded that higher daily doses of sulfonylureas were associated with
an increased risk of death. But this situation was not seen with metformin due to its protective effect.
The investigators concluded that nowadays, when there are have several other classes of oral medication
to treat diabetes, clinicians should carefully assign the sulfonylurea therapy to subjects at high risk
of cardiovascular complications.
NOTE:
The Information on this site is provided for information only, and is not meant to substitute for the advice of your own physician or other medical professional.
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