According to research reported at the 72nd Scientific Sessions annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, patients who reduced their hemoglobin A1c levels by nearly one percentage point -- from a mean of 7.8% to 7% -- had a significant 45% decreased risk of cardiovascular death. The absolute risk of a death from a cardiovascular cause was 9.9 events per 1,000 person-years in patients with decreasing HbA1c and 17.8 per 1,000 in those with stable or increasing HbA1c.
The research team said that they undertook the study because of the ongoing debate about the relationship between glycemic control and adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Besides the decrease in total mortality, the researchers found that better glycemic control was significantly associated with risk reductions in fatal and nonfatal coronary heart events of 39% and in fatal/nonfatal cardiovascular disease events of 37%.
According to the researchers, the absolute risk of a first fatal or nonfatal event caused by coronary disease was 10.3 per 1,000 person-years for those who had better glycemic control versus 17.9 per 1,000 for those without better control.
Eeg-Olofsson noted that these patients were receiving routine care for type 2 diabetes which shows that targeting HbA1c to 7% (the treatment target) can help mitigate the higher risk of cardiovascular events generally seen in diabetics.
Steve: This should quiet those who have doubted the efficacy of testing for HgbA1C.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
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