Increasing Insulin Dose is Not Associated With Increased Cardiovascular Death

Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, non-traumatic amputations, and a major contributor to cardiovascular disease and death. A new study has revealed that increasing insulin dose to manage diabetes was found not to be associated with increased cardiovascular death. Lead study investigator Elias Siraj, professor of medicine at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, said, "Insulin is a very important medication for patients with diabetes and everyone really wanted to know if insulin could be harmful at higher doses. Our initial unadjusted analysis showed that an increase in insulin dose by one unit/kg of body weight increased the risk of cardiovascular death by 83-236%. But, we had to adjust the data for various medical conditions and other factors potentially associated with insulin use."

For the study, the research team analyzed data from a clinical trial entitled Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD study). Siraj said, "This is reassuring for many physicians and their patients. But, our findings would not lay to rest the on-going discussion about insulin use and the potential for increased risk, especially at higher doses. There are still unanswered questions and more studies are needed to answer them definitively."

The findings were published in Diabetes Care.

Source-IANS