Danish scientists presented the findings of work carried out with patients with type 2 diabetes. According to these researchers, drugs prescribed for prevention could halve the risk of premature death and cardiac arrest.
- Heart attack risk is halved for patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes
- The effect of preventive drugs – antihypertensives or cholesterol-lowering drugs – helps to reduce the risk
The management of patients with Type 2 diabetes has evolved considerably over the past twenty years, with increasing emphasis on the prevention of cardiovascular disease. This large study from Denmark and presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology is the first to examine how these changes may have affected the risk of heart attack and premature death in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. diagnosed and with no history of cardiovascular disease.
All patients in Denmark who started treatment for type 2 diabetes between 1996 and 2011 were included, a total of 211,278 participants. Each diabetic patient was compared, according to their age and sex, with five non-diabetic people from the general population.
The researchers recorded heart attacks and deaths throughout the follow-up. They also noted the use of drugs to prevent cardiovascular disease at the time of diabetes diagnosis. People with a history of cardiovascular disease were not included in the study.
A greatly reduced risk of heart attack
After seven years of follow-up, and based on data from national health registries, the authors of this work found that patients who were recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and who had no disease previously had about half the risk of heart attack or premature death.
“The risk of heart attack and premature death in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and never having suffered from cardiovascular disease was approximately halved between 1996 and 2011. During the same period, the difference in risk of heart attack and death for patients with diabetes, compared to the general population, has been significantly reduced”, underlines Dr Christine Gyldenkerne of the University Hospital of Aarhus (Denmark), who led the study.
At the end of the study, the risk of heart attack in diabetic patients was only 0.6% higher than in the general population. If this is only an observational study, these results suggest that preventive medications such as antihypertensives or cholesterol-lowering drugs help reduce the incidence of heart attacks and premature death in these diabetic patients.
However, other factors could be taken into account, in particular a better lifestyle (stopping smoking, regular physical activity, healthier diet), the researchers speculate.
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