Diabetes

NEW YORK -- Experiments in mice suggest that the type 2 diabetes drugs rosiglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos) increase uptake of both glucose and triglycerides in cardiac tissue, causing or exacerbating heart failure.

DALLAS -- A fatty heart, cardiac steatosis, can occur in patients on the road to type 2 diabetes and in the presence of normal left ventricular dysfunction, investigators here have determined.

VIENNA, Sept. 4 -- Even normotensive patients with diabetes can reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke, and renal failure by lowering of blood pressure, researchers reported here.

ABSTRACT: Low-density lipoproteins are the most common atherogenic particles in diabetic dyslipidemia; therefore statins, which dramatically reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, are first-line therapy for patients with diabetes. These agents produce equivalent relative risk reductions in those with and without diabetes but confer greater absolute risk reduction because of the increased incidence of ischemic cardiovascular events in those with diabetes. The LDL cholesterol goal for patients with diabetes who do not have coronary heart disease is below 100 mg/dL. For secondary prevention, the goal is below 70 mg/dL. High-dose statin therapy may be required to achieve these goals. Fibric acids are a reasonable initial option for patients with triglyceride levels above 200 mg/dL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels below 40 mg/dL; in such patients they reduce risk as effectively as statins. Intermediate-release niacin raises HDL cholesterol levels; the effect is enhanced when niacin is combined with a statin.

BOSTON -- Whole grains may help prevent type 2 diabetes, with consistent results across studies, researchers said.

BOSTON -- The development of type 2 diabetes -- or at least part of it -- may be in your head, researchers here said.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles the risk that offspring will be obese by kindergarten age, but treatment of maternal hyperglycemia can prevent it, said investigators here.

BOSTON -- Myocardial infarction more than doubles the risk of new-onset diabetes and leads to a 15-fold increased risk of impaired fasting glucose, results of a study of more than 8,000 MI patients show.

DALLAS -- An over-abundance of a key hormone protects the "world's fattest mice" from the metabolic effects of their excess fat, researchers said.

NEW YORK -- Women who develop gestational diabetes may be at increased risk for pancreatic cancer decades later, reported researchers here.

BOSTON -- Diabetes added a significant independent risk of death for patients with acute coronary syndromes, such a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-STEMI or unstable angina, researchers reported.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The makers of rosglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos), have agreed to add a black box warning to the type 2 diabetes drugs' labels about an increased risk of heart failure, the FDA said today.

ST. LOUIS -- Poor housing conditions may contribute to African Americans' risk of developing diabetes, though how is unclear, researchers said.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Better diabetes detection over the past 25 years has actually reduced estimates of skyrocketing disease and shifted disparities from race and ethnicity to education.

NEW YORK -- Bone-generating osteoblasts secrete a protein that appears to regulate insulin function and glucose metabolism, revealing an endocrine role for the skeleton, researchers here said.

Gaithersburg, Md. -- By a vote of 20 to three a group of FDA advisers found evidence that rosiglitazone (Avandia), the popular oral anti-diabetes drug, increases the risk of myocardial infarction. But the same advisers said the drug should stay on the market.

BOSTON -- Simply by reducing insulin-like signaling within the brains of mice, the creatures developed risk factors for diabetes but become long-lived, investigators here reported.

DUSSELDORF, Germany -- Diabetes patients treated with rosiglitazone (Avandia) did no better than those treated with other drugs, according to a Cochrane systematic review of 18 published trials.

MIDDLESBROUGH, England -- High-quality data are lacking to assess dietary advice for patients newly diagnosed with diabetes, but evidence does show that exercise improves glycemic control.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Diabetes complicates hospital trauma care much as it does for in-patient acute care, researchers here reported.

BALTIMORE -- Older and cheaper oral drugs for type 2 diabetes may be just as effective at controlling glycemia and improving lipid profiles as newer agents, suggested a systematic literature review.

BOSTON -- A lack of vitamin D and calcium in the diet may increase the risk for the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes in patients with impaired glucose tolerance, nutrition researchers found.

PITTSBURGH -- The risk of developing diabetes decreased 38% among rheumatoid arthritis patients taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (Plaqueril), according to a preliminary study.

BOSTON -- Incretin-based therapies offer an alternative to hypoglycemic agents for type 2 diabetes with little if any weight gain, a meta-analysis showed.

COVENTRY, England -- Selenium supplementation does not prevent diabetes and might actually precipitate it, a large prevention trial has suggested.