Blood pressure drugs can help Diabetes 2 complications
The George Institute for International Health (Sydney) has reported on the success of a worldwide clinical trial showing that a combination of blood pressure lowering drugs can cut deaths from complications of type 2 diabetes by almost one fifth.
The results of the trial, led by Professor Stephen MacMahon, were published in the The Lancet, and presented at the 2007 European Congress of Cardiology in Vienna .
More than 11,000 patients with type 2 diabetes in 20 countries participated in the project, with an average participation period of 4.3 years.
Half received daily treatment with a single tablet containing a fixed combination of two blood pressure lowering drugs (perindopril and indapamide), and half received a placebo tablet.
The participants received the drugs in addition to any other therapies that they were receiving for diabetes.
The results showed that type 2 diabetes patients benefited from the blood pressure lowering treatment no matter whether their blood pressure was elevated or not to begin with.
These results have worldwide implications for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
