Diabetes drug 'increases heart failure risk'

London, Aug 21 (ANI): Commonly prescribed diabetes drug increases the risk of heart failure compared with a similar medication, says a new study.

The research, published on bmj.com, has concluded that rosiglitazone is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and death among older patients compared to pioglitazone.

Both the drugs belong to a class of drugs called thiazolidinediones and are widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. They help to control blood sugar levels, but both drugs can also cause side effects including weight gain, fluid retention and heart failure.

It is not clear whether there are clinically important differences in the cardiac safety of these two drugs, so researchers in Canada compared the risk of heart attack, heart failure and death in patients treated with rosiglitazone and pioglitazone.

With the help of prescription records, boffins identified nearly 40,000 patients aged 66 years and older who started treatment with either rosiglitazone or pioglitazone between April 2002 and March 2008.

Data on hospital admission for either a heart attack or heart failure during the six-year study period were recorded and deaths were identified from a national database.

Detailed analysis showed that patients treated with pioglitazone had a significantly lower risk of heart failure and death compared to patients treated with rosiglitazone, but there was no significant difference in the risk of heart attack.

The researchers estimate that, for every 93 patients treated with rosiglitazone rather than pioglitazone, one additional cardiovascular event or death would be predicted to occur annually.

"Our findings suggest clinically important differences in the cardiovascular safety profiles of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone in clinical practice," say the authors.

"Given the accumulating evidence of harm with rosiglitazone treatment and the lack of a distinct clinical advantage for the drug over pioglitazone, it is reasonable to question whether ongoing use of rosiglitazone is justified," they conclude. (ANI)