Another Fascinating U Shaped Mortality Curve

Medical News: Tight Glucose Control Raises Mortality Risk in Heart Failure – in Cardiovascular, CHF from MedPage Today

To look farther down the disease spectrum than the analysis in ACCORD, Dr. Aguilar’s group retrospectively examined outcomes for a national cohort of 5,815 ambulatory diabetic patients with established heart failure who were treated in ambulatory clinics at VA medical centers.

During two years of follow-up, mortality rates were:

* 25.0% in the bottom quintile with hemoglobin A1c levels of 6.4% or less.
* 23.0% in the group with A1c levels of 6.5% to 7.1%.
* 17.7% in the middle quintile with glycosylated hemoglobin levels above 7.1% but no more than 7.8%.
* 22.5% in the group with A1c levels of 7.9% to 9.0%.
* 23.2% in the top quartile with hemoglobin A1c levels above 9.0%.

This is must-have information for all the life settlement underwriters out there.

DM = 3X Higher CVD Mortality Risk

Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes, Alone and in Combination, as Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Among Men — Diabetes Care

CONCLUSIONS The presence of diabetes was associated with a threefold higher CVD mortality risk, and metabolic syndrome status did not modify this risk. Our findings support the fact that physicians should be aggressive in using CVD risk–reducing therapies in all diabetic patients regardless of metabolic syndrome status.

Please tell me you already knew this…