Study demonstrates benefit of diabetes drug against heart disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A diabetes drug, pioglitazone, appears to slow the progression of heart disease.
Pioglitazone is a drug which can increase the body's sensitivity to insulin and is used in the treatment of diabetes. It belongs to the class of drugs known as the thiazolidinediones. In a clinical trial, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago reveal a second benefit to pioglitazone.

They looked at a group of 462 men and women with type 2 diabetes and gave them either pioglitazone or glimepiride, a diabetes drug which acts differently - by stimulating the pancreas to make more insulin. The participants all received a scan to measure the thickness of the walls of the carotid arteries that serve the brain - a measurement of atherosclerosis. The less the thickening and the slower the rate of thickening, the less the risk of heart disease and heart attack.

By the end of the 72 week study, those on pioglitazone had an artery thickness that decreased by an average of 0.001 millimeters, while that of those on glimepiride increased by 0.012 millimeters. The benefit of pioglitazone was independent of age, sex, duration of diabetes, cholesterol level or blood pressure. Therefore, pioglitazone could be a useful medication for reducing the risk of heart disease among those with diabetes.

Source
American Heart Association meeting 13th November 2006

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