Diabetes increasingly prevalent in heart failure

	Tweet

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing among older persons with heart failure, and diabetes is a significant independent risk factor for death in these individuals.

The findings, appearing in The American Journal of Medicine, underscore the importance of tight control of diabetes, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, assert.

Dr. Aaron M. From and associates analyzed a random group of 665 people living independently in Olmstead County who were first diagnosed with heart failure between 1979 and 1999. The average age of these individuals was 77 years and 20 percent had a pre-existing diagnosis of diabetes. 

Those with diabetes tended to be younger and weighed more than heart failure patients without diabetes. They also had lower left ventricular ejection fractions—a measure of the heart’s blood-pumping power.

The prevalence of diabetes increased 3.8 percent per year. The odds of having diabetes for those first diagnosed with heart failure in 1999 was nearly four times higher than those diagnosed 20 years earlier in 1979.

Five-year survival was 46 percent for those with heart failure alone, but only 37 percent for those with heart failure and diabetes.

Counterintuitively, subjects with diabetes and no coronary artery disease had a significantly higher risk of death than those with diabetes and coronary disease, compared to patients with neither diabetes nor heart disease. The authors suggest this finding may reflect under-recognition of heart disease in diabetic subjects.

The increasing prevalence of diabetes and its associated increase in risk of death “delineates a substantial opportunity to improve the outcome of heart failure by preventing diabetes and, once present, by aggressively evaluating and treating it,” From and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine July, 2006.

RELATED STORIES:
Phone contact with nurses linked with better outcomes for women with gestational diabetes   Death rate drops among Americans with diabetes -CDC   Correct treatment of common diabetic foot infections can reduce amputations   “Pre-diabetes,” diabetes rising among U.S. teens   Experimental bariatric surgery controls blood sugar in rats with diabetes   53 millions Americans might develop diabetes by 2025   New inflammation hormone link may pave way to study new drugs for type 2 diabetes   Diabetic retinopathy research could reduce screening costs   Liver fat gets a wake-up call that maintains blood sugar levels   Low testosterone levels could raise diabetes risk for men   Prosthetic lets diabetic get a foot up on life   Dealing with Diabetes, One Patient at a Time

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]