BMJ  2006;332:1103-1104 (13 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7550.1103

Editorial

Diabetes and lipid lowering: where are we?

We're now sure that statins cut cardiovascular risks in type 2 diabetes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Premature morbidity and mortality is substantially due to cardiovascular disease, with tobacco use, hypertension, and abnormal lipids being the main modifiable causal factors. Glycaemia is directly related to cardiovascular risk,¹ and in people with diabetes the risk of cardiovascular disease approaches that in non-diabetic people with previous myocardial infarction.^{2 3}

Because most people with type 2 diabetes have an absolute risk of cardiovascular disease of 20% or more over 10 years, guidelines suggest active intervention to reduce risk factors in patients with diabetes, including statin therapy to reduce the serum concentration of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) to < 2 mmol/l.³ In this week's BMJ Costa and colleagues report a meta-analysis of trials of lipid lowering drug therapy for primary and secondary coronary heart disease prevention in patients with and without diabetes.⁴

Review by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of the role of statins in preventing . . . [Full text of this article]

Royal United Hospital, Bath BA1 3NG
(mpsjpdr@bath.ac.uk)

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Find additional patient-related information at:

Lowering Fats in the Blood Through Medication

Relevant Article

Efficacy of lipid lowering drug treatment for diabetic and non-diabetic patients: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

João Costa, Margarida Borges, Cláudio David, and António Vaz Carneiro
BMJ 2006 332: 1115-1124. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Struthers, A., Lang, C. (2007). The potential to improve primary prevention in the future by using BNP/N-BNP as an indicator of silent 'pancardiac' target organ damage: BNP/N-BNP could become for the heart what microalbuminuria is for the kidney. Eur Heart J 28: 1678-1682 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• (2006). Aggressive Lipid Lowering Is Especially Helpful in Diabetics. JWatch Gastroenterology 2006: 7-7 [Full text]  
• (2006). Aggressive Lipid Lowering Is Especially Helpful in Diabetics. JWatch General 2006: 1-1 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Diabetes and lipid lowering: what about concordance?

Sarah Farrow
bmj.com, 13 May 2006 [Full text]

Lipid Lowering in Diabetes – Ophthalmic Benefits of Statin Therapy

Hiten G Sheth, et al.
bmj.com, 16 May 2006 [Full text]

Relative and absolute risk

Michael P Snee
bmj.com, 16 May 2006 [Full text]