Cardiovascular Business: Patients with type 2 diabetes and heart disease may require more aggressive, modern treatments

Treating coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) may require a more aggressive treatment approach than normal, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA).

The document, published in full in Circulation, was written by Suzanne V. Arnold, MD, a cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and several colleagues. It was developed on behalf of the AHA’s Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health and Council on Clinical Cardiology.

“What we’ve learned in the past decade is how you control glucose levels has a huge influence on cardiovascular risk,” Arnold said in a statement. “Lowering blood sugars to a certain level is not sufficient. There are now more options for controlling glucose in people with T2D, and each patient should be evaluated for their personal risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and kidney disease. This combined health information, as well as the patient’s age, should be used to determine the appropriate therapies to lower glucose.”

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