MONDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes, but not impaired glucose regulation, ups the risk of death and adverse cardiovascular outcomes among patients with coronary artery disease, according to a report from the Euro Heart Survey on diabetes and the heart, published in the December issue of the European Heart Journal.
Mattie Lenzen, M.D., of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues assessed one-year outcomes among 4,961 coronary artery disease patients in relation to their glucometabolic state. Of the heart disease patients, 947 had normal glucose metabolism, 1,116 had impaired glucose regulation and 1,877 had diabetes. Diabetes patients were further broken down into previously and newly diagnosed diabetes.
Patients with previously recognized and newly diagnosed diabetes were at an increased risk of dying and/or experiencing cardiovascular events within one year (hazard ratio, 2.4), compared with their counterparts with normal glucose levels. By contrast, impaired glucose regulation did not predict death or adverse outcomes, the report indicates.
"In addition to good glycemic control, beta-blockers, anti-thrombotic drugs, statins and ACE-inhibitors should be considered in the pharmacological management of patients with established coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus," the researchers conclude.