Pharmaceutical Care Reduces Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes

A 12-month pharmaceutical care program can reduce vascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes. Pharmaceutical care involves the detection, prevention, and resolution of drug-related problems, the authors explain, and has proved beneficial in other chronic diseases, including asthma and cancer.

Dr. Timothy M. E. Davis from Fremantle Hospital in Western Australia and colleagues investigated the impact of a pharmaceutical care program in a community-based sample of 180 patients with type 2 diabetes who participated in the program or received usual care.

Reductions in BMI, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin were greater in patients participating in pharmaceutical care than in the usual-care patients, the authors report. The pharmaceutical care group also experienced nonsignificant improvements in serum lipid parameters and urine albumin/creatinine ratios.

After controlling for greater use of ACE inhibitor/angiotensin 2 receptor blocker therapy, antihypertensive drug use, and antiplatelet drug therapy in the pharmaceutical care group, the researchers note, allocation to pharmaceutical care remained an independent predictor of improvements in plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin.

The median 10-year risk of coronary heart disease decreased in the pharmaceutical care group but did not change significantly in the usual-care group, the results indicate. Similarly, the risk of stroke did not change for the pharmaceutical care subjects but increased for the usual-care subjects.
"Our data and those of others argue that the pharmacist can be a beneficial addition to integrated care for patients with type 2 diabetes," the investigators add.
Diabetes Care 2005;28:771-776.

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DID YOU KNOW:
Plant protein may hold key to future treatment: According to a recent study, a common protein that protects plants from fungal infection mimics the activity of a hormone in mammals that is linked to weight loss and is believed to play a role in mitigating heart disease, obesity and diabetes. The protein, called osmotin, belongs to a large family of proteins that defend plants from fungal pathogens. A protein in mammal muscle cells called a receptor, which normally binds to the hormone adiponectin, also binds osmotin. The researchers found that the osmotin in plants activates the receptors in mammals in the same manner as adiponectin. When bound to its receptor, adiponectin regulates sugar uptake and, in mouse models, prevents the development of diabetes and atherosclerosis – the hardening of the arteries associated with cardiovascular disease. (Mol Cell 2005 21; 17(2): 171-80)