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Study data also suggests that good glycemic control may provide a cardiovascular benefit for people who've had diabetes for a short period of time and have no known cardiovascular disease.

"The lack of significant reduction in CVD (cardiovascular disease) events with intensive glycemic control should not lead clinicians to abandon the general target of AIC (a measure of blood glucose level over the prior 2 to 3 months) levels of less than 7 percent, and thereby discount the benefit of good control on what are serious and debilitating microvascular complications," the joint statement said.

However, less stringent AIC goals should be considered for diabetes patients with a "history of severe hypoglycemia, limited life expectancy, advanced microvascular or macrovascular complications, extensive comorbid conditions, and those with longstanding diabetes in whom the general goal is difficult to attain despite diabetes self-management education, appropriate glucose monitoring, and effective doses of multiple glucose lowering agents including insulin."

The recommendations were published online in the journals of each of the three organizations.

More information

The U.S. National Diabetes Education Program has more about diabetes control.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: American Diabetes Association, American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, joint news release, Dec. 17, 2008