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SUNDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- Two sets of results from a large U.S. government-sponsored trial find that neither aggressive treatment of cholesterol nor of blood pressure lowers the risk of heart events in people with type 2 diabetes.
"These results could be disappointing to a lot of people -- that this intensive blood pressure control or intensive lipid control didn't reduce fatal or nonfatal events," said Dr. Stephen Kopecky, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
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But, Kopecky added, the trial did not look at lifestyle measures which, when added to the mix, might have achieved the sought-after goals of fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes and lower mortality.
The findings come from the huge National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial which, overall, involved more than 10,000 patients with type 2 diabetes at risk for heart disease.
Both sets of results were to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta and simultaneously published in the March 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
People with type 2 diabetes have a considerably higher risk of cardiovascular disease and health experts are constantly searching for new and better ways to lower that risk.
Previous results from ACCORD found, much to everyone's surprise, that intensive lowering of blood sugar levels actually increased the risk of death in this population of people. Other studies have not found that, however, and the jury is still out on what glucose levels are optimal, Kopecky said.
For the ACCORD cholesterol trial, more than 5,500 patients with type 2 diabetes and a high risk for heart disease who were already taking the cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor (simvastatin) were randomly assigned to add fenofibrate or a placebo to their regimen.
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