By 2010, more than 3 million Canadians will have diabetes and that number will continue to grow by nearly 550 every day. More than 60% of people with diabetes have high blood pressure, and almost 60% have high cholesterol. As a result, cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks and strokes is the leading cause of death in people with diabetes.

Key results

There was no interaction between the effects of the routine blood pressure lowering and intensive glucose control for any of the pre-specified clinical outcomes. When compared to neither intervention, combination treatment reduced the risk of new or worsening nephropathy by 33%, new onset macroalbuminuria by 54% and new onset microalbuminuria by 26%. Combination treatment was associated with an 18% reduction in the risk of all-cause death.

"We anticipate that the combined treatment strategy employed by ADVANCE may further reduce cardiovascular risk in the long term," said Dr. Hamet. "From the blood pressure part of the ADVANCE study we already knew that treating blood pressure with Coversyl Plus offers a vascular protection for type 2 diabetic patients. We now have an additional proof that we can have better results by combining good treatments."

Source: CENTRE HOSPITALIER DE L'UNIVERSITE DE MONTREAL

Source: UNIVERSITE DE MONTREAL