Insulin Resistance: A Missing Link Between Toe and Flow?

Ladies and gents: note the press release below from our colleagues at UPMC. Trevor Orchard, et al, who studied people with diabetes and heart disease, found that those taking an insulin sensitizer did marginally better than those having surgical intervention. Perhaps there is room for both? Perhaps there is room for both in the periphery?

This weekend, I had the pleasure of chairing a session at the American Diabetes Association on Peripheral Arterial Disease. The session, which included Reena Pande from Brigham and Women’s, John Cooke from Stanford, Chris Kramer from University of Virginia and Alan Hirsch from University of Minnesota, raised this issue. I would take it further by saying that– perhaps– current and future therapies might aim at the end organ (muscle, etc) to improve insulin sensitivity as well as improving blood flow and reducing inflammation. Is this a systemic treatment? Can it be delivered locally or regionally?

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Results of a new study find that diabetes patientssuffering from blocked arteries may not always benefit from surgery as a first form of treatment.

This news comes from the results of a new study which is going to be published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, featured 2,368 people from 6 countries, all of whom diabetic patients and treated via either drugs or bypass surgery for blocked arteries.

According to researchers of the study, diabetics who experience heart blockages, can be treated via drugs just as effectively as by having surgery.

This study finding is good news for diabetes patients as it offers a less invasive, apparently effective method of treating blocked arteries.

Dr. Trevor Orchard of the University of Pittsburgh who led the study, said “The insulin sensitization drugs are not harmful . . . and may be a little better.”

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