Study indicates diabetes drug linked to cardiovascular death

A meta-analysis of 42 trials of the type 2 diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) has shown a significantly raised risk of myocardial infarction and an increase in cardiovascular deaths that did not quite reach statistical significance (New England Journal of Medicine 2007 May 21 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa072761).

The analysis by Steven Nissen and Kathy Wolski, of the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, included 15 560 patients randomly assigned to regimens that included rosiglitazone, and 12 283 patients assigned to regimens that did not. The mean age of patients was 56 years, and the mean baseline glycated haemoglobin concentration was about 8.2%.

Patients receiving rosiglitazone had an odds ratio for myocardial infarction of 1.43 (95% confidence interval 1.03 to 1.98, P=0.03). …