Mayo Clinic researchers: Insulin-boosting medication does not impair ability to survive he...( ORLANDO Fla. -- Mayo Clinic research...),Health

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Mayo Clinic researchers helped clarify a growing concern about the link between diabetes mellitus treatments and heart attack with the first large, population-based study showing that a group of common medications does not reduce diabetic patients heart attack survival rates. These results were presented today at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2007 in Orlando, Fla.

The drugs studied are called sulfonylureas and include several commonly used pills to increase insulin release to lower blood sugar. Second-generation sulfonylureas -- known collectively as SU2 -- include glimepiride (Amaryl), glipizide (Glucotrol, Glucotrol XL), and glyburide (DiaBeta, Micronase, Glynase).(1)

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is growing rapidly, and physicians need evidence for their treatment recommendations. Worldwide, the number of diabetics is projected to more than double in three decades, from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030.(2) Many patients with diabetes are at increased risk for heart failure. This complicates their treatment, and has raised concern in recent years among some physicians that SU2s may impair the hearts ability to withstand stress, thus reducing patients ability to survive heart attacks, says Veronique Roger, M.D., M.P.H., the Mayo cardiologist and epidemiologist who led the study.

The Mayo study is the first to use a broad population of community members to extract information about the impact of various diabetes treatments on patients health after heart attack. The Mayo group evaluated the outcome of heart attack in two groups: people who had diabetes and those who did not. Group members were similar in terms of age, gender and lifestyle habits such as smoking. In the diabetes group, researchers tracked patient outcome after heart attack in patients taking three different treatment approaches to lowering blood sugar: SU2 dr
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