Treatment important for primary prevention even without CVD history
FRIDAY, April 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cardiovascular death is 22 to 44 percent lower among individuals with type 1 diabetes treated with lipid-lowering therapy (LLT), according to a study published online April 18 in Diabetes Care.
Christel Hero, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and colleagues used the Swedish National Diabetes Register to identify 24,230 individuals (2006 to 2008) with type 1 diabetes without a history of CVD. The cohort included 5,387 patients treated with LLT (97% statins) and 18,843 untreated, propensity-matched controls. All were followed through December 2012 (mean follow-up, six years).
The researchers found that the propensity score balanced all 32 covariates, with no differences between treated and untreated patients after accounting for propensity score. For treated compared with untreated patients, the hazard ratio for cardiovascular death was 0.6; all-cause death, 0.56; fatal/nonfatal stroke, 0.56; fatal/nonfatal acute myocardial infarction, 0.78; fatal/nonfatal coronary heart disease, 0.85; and fatal/nonfatal CVD, 0.77.
“This observational study shows that LLT is associated with 22 to 44 percent reduction in the risk of CVD and cardiovascular death among individuals with type 1 diabetes without history of CVD and underlines the importance of primary prevention with LLT to reduce cardiovascular risk in type 1 diabetes,” conclude the authors.
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