| New onset diabetes, too, risky
for heart
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetes, whether newly diagnosed or
long-standing, raises the risk of heart attack and related problems
by about threefold in people with high blood pressure, new research
suggests.
Although diabetes is known to develop in patients being treated
for high blood pressure, the significance of this phenomenon is
unclear, lead author Dr. Paolo Verdecchia, from the Universita di
Perugia in Italy, and colleagues note in the medical journal Hypertension.
To investigate, the researchers assessed the heart-related outcomes
of 795 patients with high blood pressure who were followed for about
6 years. At enrollment 7 percent of the patients had type 2 diabetes,
and during follow-up an additional 6 percent developed the disease.
Compared with patients without diabetes, those with new diabetes
were 2.9-times more likely to experience a heart attack or related
event -- an elevated risk similar to the 3.6-fold risk seen in patients
with long-standing diabetes.
The use of water pills or "diuretics" was more common
among patients who developed diabetes than among their peers who
did not, the authors point out. The use of diuretics on follow-up
was a predictor of new diabetes, as was a high blood sugar level
at the start of the study.
Patients with these risk factors "should be monitored with
care to prevent occurrence of new diabetes," the investigators
emphasize.
SOURCE: Hypertension, May 2004.
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