Tight Control Benefits Type 2 Patients

March 14, 1999

UK Study Shows Tight Control Benefits Type 2 Patients

September, 1998

A new study released in September called the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes

Study has demonstrated conclusively that closely managing patients with type 2

diabetes to keep their blood sugars as near to normal as possible will decrease

their risk of complications such as eye and kidney disease by as much as 25

percent. If the patients also have high blood pressure and they aggressively

reduce that as well, they can see major reductions in their risk of stroke and

heart failure as well.

The study is the largest and longest study of patients with type 2 diabetes ever

performed, and included over 5000 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

recruited at 23 sites in the United Kingdom between 1977 and 1991. Patients in

the study were followed for an average of 10 years.

These results confirm previous conclusions that lowering blood glucose would be

beneficial, most notably the results of the U.S. Diabetes Control and

Complications Trial (DCCT). Despite the results of the 10 year DCCT, which was

conducted over a 10 year period in more than 1400 patients with type 1 diabetes

nationwide, there had been some debate whether tight control of blood sugars

would be as important in patients with type 2 diabetes.

" The results of this new study, in our opinion, confirm that keeping blood

sugars as close to normal as possible is just as important for patients with

type 2 diabetes as it is in patients with type 1, " says Joslin Senior Physician

Gordon C. Weir, M.D.

The study showed that for every one percentage point reduction in hemoglobin A1c

(i.e. going from 11.0 to 10.0), there would be a 35 percent reduction in damage

to the eyes, kidney and nerves, and a 25 percent reduction in diabetes-related

deaths.

The study also examined whether by more intensively treating high blood pressure

in patients with type 2 diabetes, the risk of diabetes complications could be

reduced. The research showed that aggressive control of high blood pressure in

people with type 2 diabetes significantly reduces the risk of heart failure (by

56 percent), stroke (by 44 percent) and death from diabetes (a 32 percent

reduction).

For more information on this study, visit the American Diabetes Association's

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