Statins may reduce cardiac deaths in diabetics
Study looks at use of statins in diabetics with high cardiovascular disease risk
Heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of death and disability among type 2 diabetics, according to the American Heart Association. In fact, at least 65 percent of people with diabetes die from stroke or some form of cardiovascular disease.
A study published in Diabetes Care earlier this year cites that the use of cholesterol-lowering statins may help lower the chances of cardiovascular death in people with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers focus on statin use
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center examined data from 371 patients who participated in the Diabetes Heart Study. The participants received CT scan to determine their levels of coronary artery calcium (CAC) at the beginning of the study. If one’s CAC score was greater than 1,000, it signaled an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
During an average of 8.2 years, 153 patients died and 218 survived. The researchers compared the baseline characteristics between these two groups. The participants who took statins at the beginning of the study were found to have a 50 percent increase of survival compared to those who did not.
Don Bowden, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest Baptist, said that this highlights the importance of prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications to Type 2 diabetics who have high CVD risk. He noted that in previous studies however, the rates of statins prescribed for diabetic patients have been rather low.
“These data suggest that cholesterol-lowering medications may be used less than recommended and need to be more aggressively targeted as a critical modifiable risk factor,” Bowden says, “Although our study was not a clinical trial, it did show that people with diabetes and heart disease can still live quite a few years by taking statins.”
Further links:
Sciencedaily.com
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