New Onset Diabetes, Too, Risky for Heart

May 5, 2004

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diabetes, whether newly diagnosed or long-standing, raises the risk of heart attack and related problems by about threefold in people with high blood pressure, new research suggests.

Although diabetes is known to develop in patients being treated for high blood pressure, the significance of this phenomenon is unclear, lead author Dr. Paolo Verdecchia, from the Universita di Perugia in Italy, and colleagues note in the medical journal Hypertension.

To investigate, the researchers assessed the heart-related outcomes of 795 patients with high blood pressure who were followed for about 6 years. At enrollment 7 percent of the patients had type 2 diabetes, and during follow-up an additional 6 percent developed the disease.

Compared with patients without diabetes, those with new diabetes were 2.9-times more likely to experience a heart attack or related event - an elevated risk similar to the 3.6-fold risk seen in patients with long-standing diabetes.

The use of water pills or "diuretics" was more common among patients who developed diabetes than among their peers who did not, the authors point out. The use of diuretics on follow-up was a predictor of new diabetes, as was a high blood sugar level at the start of the study.

Patients with these risk factors "should be monitored with care to prevent occurrence of new diabetes," the investigators emphasize.

SOURCE: Hypertension, May 2004