Diabetes trial stops treatment arm in wake of death risk
February 17th, 2008 Posted by: Dr. Cox
Washington — The halting on Feb. 6 of an arm of the large type 2 diabetes trial, ACCORD, sent shock waves through the medical community. The lower-the-better conventional wisdom for blood glucose levels was questioned when it was found that those getting the most intensive glucose-lowering treatments were more likely to die.
But treatment strategies — keeping blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check — are likely to remain unchanged for the vast majority of the millions of people with type 2 diabetes. What might change is an overly aggressive pursuit of low blood glucose levels in patients with or at risk for cardiovascular disease.