“We strongly recommend restrictions in the use of thiazolidinediones (the class of drugs) and question the rationale for leaving rosiglitazone on the market,” write Sonal Singh, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of internal medicine, and Curt D. Furberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor of public health sciences. Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are the two major thiazolidinediones reports Science Daily.
In the editorial Singh and Furberg say, “At this time, justification for use of thiazolidinediones is very weak to non-existent.”
Oral drugs are given to control diabetes by lowering blood sugar.
But diabetics also experience elevated rates of high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterol and triglyceride, which “further compound their already increased risk of developing ischemic heart disease,” Singh and Furberg say. Heart disease and high blood pressure “represent conditions that are major precursors of congestive heart failure.”
About 22 percent of diabetics have heart disease. Among elderly patients with diabetes, more than half will develop congestive heart failure over a 10-year period, the editorial says.
The thiazolidinediones were approved for use based on the ability to reduce blood sugar.
In contrast, “we reported [in the journal Diabetes Care] in June 2007 that thiazolidinediones doubled the risk of congestive heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes,” is says. “The increased heart failure appears to be a class effect.”
Read it here: Class of Diabetes Drugs Carries Significant Cardiovascular Risks