Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Metformin, the gold standard for treating type 2 diabetes, may not be so golden after all, researchers reported.
A meta-analysis showed that the glucose-lowering agent had no effect on all-cause or cardiovascular mortality in people with diabetes, according to Catherine Cornu, MD, of the Clinical Investigation Centre in Lyon, France, and colleagues.
Indeed, the researchers reported online in PLoS Medicine, the analysis could not rule out anything from a 25% decrease to a 31% increase in the risk of death for any cause, or a 33% decrease to a 64% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality.
The finding is surprising, Cornu and colleagues noted, because the drug has been considered to be the first-line treatment for diabetes since results of the UK Prospective Diabetes Study were published in 1998, showing a mortality benefit in overweight patients with diabetes, when combined with diet control.
On the other hand, they noted, an overlooked finding in the UK study was that in non-overweight diabetes patients, the drug, when combined with sulphonylurea, actually appeared to increase mortality.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/32146
A meta-analysis showed that the glucose-lowering agent had no effect on all-cause or cardiovascular mortality in people with diabetes, according to Catherine Cornu, MD, of the Clinical Investigation Centre in Lyon, France, and colleagues.
Indeed, the researchers reported online in PLoS Medicine, the analysis could not rule out anything from a 25% decrease to a 31% increase in the risk of death for any cause, or a 33% decrease to a 64% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality.
The finding is surprising, Cornu and colleagues noted, because the drug has been considered to be the first-line treatment for diabetes since results of the UK Prospective Diabetes Study were published in 1998, showing a mortality benefit in overweight patients with diabetes, when combined with diet control.
On the other hand, they noted, an overlooked finding in the UK study was that in non-overweight diabetes patients, the drug, when combined with sulphonylurea, actually appeared to increase mortality.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/32146