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The drug improves blood sugar levels by making cells more sensitive to insulin.
New research suggests that, treatment with Glucophage (metformin) appears to improve the outcomes of diabetics who undergo angioplasty to open blocked heart blood vessels,
Dr. Jesse W. Currier, senior investigator said that "the use of the insulin sensitizing agent (Glucophage) to treat diabetes was associated with a better clinical outcome than traditional non-insulin sensitizing therapy."
Currier of the University of California Los Angeles and colleagues note diabetic patients who undergo angioplasty have poorer outcomes than those without the condition.
To determine whether treatment with Glucophage might be helpful in these circumstances, the researchers analyzed data from a study involving 2772 diabetics who underwent angioplasty. The findings appear in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Of these, 1110 received non-insulin sensitizing drugs and 887 were treated with Glucophage with or without other agents.
After 9 months, Glucophage-treated patients were 28 percent less likely to experience an adverse outcome compared with their peers who received the non-insulin sensitizing drugs. In particular, they were 61 percent less likely to die and 69 percent less likely to experience a heart attack.
Currier noted that "the issue of (angioplasty) in diabetics is complex. However, the use of insulin sensitizers…may ameliorate the poorer outcomes seen" in the diabetic population.
American Journal of Cardiology, June 1, 2004.
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