Diabetes appears to increase risk of death for patients with acute coronary...( Individuals with diabetes and acute ...),Health

Individuals with diabetes and acute coronary syndromes (ACS) such as a heart attack or unstable angina have an increased risk of death at 30 days and one year after ACS, compared with ACS patients without diabetes, according to a study in the August 15 issue of JAMA.

The presence of elevated blood glucose levels, diabetes mellitus, or both contributes to more than 3 million cardiovascular deaths worldwide each year. With the increase in obesity, insulin resistance, and the metabolic syndrome, the worldwide prevalence of diabetes is expected to double by the year 2030, the authors write. They add that more than 1.5 million adults in the U.S. were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2005, and nearly 65 percent of individuals with diabetes die from cardiovascular disease in the U.S., establishing it as the leading cause of death among this growing segment of the population. The effect of diabetes on the risk of death following ACS is uncertain.

Sean M. Donahoe, M.D., of Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues evaluated the independent effect of diabetes on risk of death following ACS at 30 days and 1 year using a large clinical trial database that included ACS. The study consisted of an analysis of patients with diabetes enrolled in randomized controlled trials that evaluated ACS therapies. Patients with ACS in 11 independent Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group clinical trials from 1997 to 2006 were pooled, including 62,036 patients (46,577 with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack] and 15,459 with unstable angina/nonSTEMI [UA/NSTEMI]), of whom 10,613 (17.1 percent) had diabetes.

The researchers found that the rate of death was significantly higher among patients with diabetes than among patients without diabetes at 30 days following either UA/NSTEMI (2.1 percent vs. 1.1 percent) or STEMI (8.5 percent
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