Diabetes Drug And Heart Failure

A recent study revealed that a drug used for treating patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes is related to increased risks of heart failure and whether to use this drug on a continuous basis may not be validated.

According to a research in British Medical Journal, rosiglitazone or Avandia is found to be associated with increased risks of heart failure and deaths, as compared to another similar drug, especially among the older patients. In the conclusion, researchers say that continuous usage of Avandia or rosiglitazone is difficult to be advocated.

The drug has been made by GSK or GlaxoSmithKline and they said that there have been no differences found between the 2 drugs in a research. A huge number of patients in UK use rosiglitazone which is used for increasing the body’s response to insulin in patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes.

But a couple of years ago, it was found in a research of New England Journal of Medicine that it can lead to increase in the risks of cardiovascular deaths and heart attacks.

A year ago, it was revealed in The Scotsman that the doctors in Scotland are concerned about using the drug. The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde ruled that only specialists of diabetes could initiate the treatment and not general practitioners.

Both Rosiglitazone and Pioglitazone come under Thiazolidinediones, a class of drugs that is used for treating Type 2 diabetes. Both of the drugs help in controlling sugar levels in the blood but may cause gain in weight, retention of fluid and heart failure.

A team from Toronto, Canada, conducted a study recently in which they compared the risks of heart failure, heart attack and death in the patients who are treated with these drugs. From the prescription records, around 40,000 patients above 66 years of age were given the treatment with any of the two drugs from April 2002 to March 2008. Their admissions to the hospitals because of heart failure or heart attack were also followed and the deaths were also recorded. This analysis showed that patients who were treated with pioglitazone had lower risks of heart failures and deaths as compared to patients who were treated with rosiglitazone. But there were no significant differences in the risks of heart attacks.

Under the leadership of Dr. David Juurlink, the researchers estimated that for every 93 patients who were treated with rosiglitazone and not pioglitazone, one more admission to the hospitals because of heart related problems or deaths is expected every year. The researchers of the study said that their findings indicate some differences in the safety profiles of both the drugs that are clinically very important. Keeping in view the harm of rosiglitazone treatment and the less advantages that the drug provides as compared to pioglitazone, putting a question mark about its continued usage is very much reasonable.

A spokesperson for GSK said that the study made by Juurlink does not reflect any evidence from the two randomized controlled tests, where there were no differences seen in heart failure between the two drugs. Dr. Iain Frame of Diabetes UK said that the claim that pioglitazone is safer than rosiglitazone is uncertain. Perhaps more studies are required to give authenticity to the statements made under the research.