Diabetes drug linked to increased risk of heart failure

By David Liu (davidl@foodconsumer.org)

A new population based cohort study published on Aug 20 on bmj.com suggests that diabetics should avoid using rosiglitazone to treat type 2 diabetes because the drug apparently raise the risk for heart failure and death.

The study found rosiglitazone, a drug indicated to treat type 2 diabetes was associated with increased risk of heart failure and death among older patients compared to pioglitazone, another diabetes drug.

Both diabetes drugs rosiglitazone and pioglitazone belong to a group of drugs called thiazolidinediones. Although they help control blood sugar, they can cause side effects like weight gain, fluid retention and heart failure.

For the study, Canadian researchers compared the two drugs in a population of 40,000 diabetes patients aged 66 years and older who either used rosiglitazone or pioglitazone between April 2002 and March 2008 for the rates of heart attacks, heart failure and death.

The researchers found diabetes patients using pioglitazone had significantly lower risk of heart failure and death than those who were treated with rosiglitazone although the rates of hert attack were similar in both groups.

The data don't indicate that pioglitazone is safer than rosiglitazone, the researchers said.  The findings of the study do support the notion that diabetes patients with heart problems should avoid thiazolidinediones.