CARDIOVASCULAR PROTECTION – THE HOLY GRAIL OF DIABETES MEDICATION ?

Abstract

Diabetes remains one of the major health issues confronting modern societies, with mean prevalence rates around 9% and almost half of billion of patients affected worldwide. It is expected that this figures will rise to 10.5% prevalence and 642 million patients by 2040. The huge costs related to this disease are associated mainly with the chronic complications of diabetes, both micro and macrovascular. By far the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents the main cause of morbidity and increased mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). There is evidence that multi-factorial treatment of T2D, including control of blood glucose, lipids and blood pressure values is associated with a significant decrease in the prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) complications and CV mortality.