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CHICAGO: Two popular drugs used to treat late-onset
diabetes may double the risk of heart failure, according to a new
study.
Researchers who analyzed data on
78,000 patients who took Avandia or Actos to treat type II diabetes
found that it increased the risk of heart failure by up to 100
percent, said the study released Thursday.
The researchers estimate that for
every 50 patients taking the medications over a period of 26 months,
one person will develop heart failure.
The manufacturers cautioned from
the beginning that the drugs were not suitable for patients at risk
for—or with a history of—heart failure, and that patients who
combined the drugs with insulin treatments were at increased risk
for this complication.
But this analysis found that this
adverse effect occurred in patients with no risk for heart failure,
even in the absence of insulin. The study also showed that it
occurred in young people and at high and low doses.
On average, patients who
developed this complication did so 24 weeks after starting on the
drug, the investigators report in the journal Diabetes Care.
“Our analysis quantifies the
risk for the first time and it shows that nobody is immune,” said
Sonal Singh, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in
internal medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Singh said the findings raise the
question of whether doctors should revert to using older drugs such
as Glucophage and or insulin injections.
The researchers did not evaluate
whether the adverse effects were fatal, nor did they study what went
wrong. They suggest that the drugs cause some people to retain fluid
which can trigger heart failure, symptoms of which include shortness
of breath and an inability to exercise.
GlaxoSmithKline, which has been
marketing Avandia in the United States since 1999 and in Europe
since 2000, downplayed the findings. Actos is made by Takeda
Pharmaceutical.
“The risk of heart failure in
diabetes patients and with use of these medicines is well recognized
and is clearly identified in prescribing information to doctors,”
the company said in a statement.
“GSK is confident in the
overall safety profile of rosiglitazone when used
appropriately.”
 --AFP
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