Diabetes News:

Study: New Beta Blocker Does Not Raise Blood Sugar Levels in Diabetics With High Blood Pressure

A new beta blocker used to control high blood pressure does not raise blood sugar levels in diabetics who also have high blood pressure, according to researchers from Rush University Medical Center.

The results of the study appear in the November 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Although effective at lowering high blood pressure, many physicians have been reluctant to prescribe beta blockers to patients with diabetes because some of these drugs have been shown to raise blood sugar levels in diabetics.

Especially at risk are the estimated 47 million people with metabolic syndrome, a combination of several risk factors in one person that includes, but is not limited to, high blood pressure, insulin dependence or glucose intolerance, and obesity.

"The results of this study suggest that physicians treating diabetic patients may want to consider the role that a newer beta-blocker such as carvedilol (Coreg®) could play in managing certain cardiovascular risk factors and components of the metabolic syndrome," said lead researcher Dr. George L. Bakris, of Rush University Medical Center. "By improving these crucial risk factors, carvedilol could, theoretically, improve overall outcomes in this high-risk patient population."

In the study involving 1,235 patients, diabetic patients with high blood pressure were given either carvedilol or an older beta blocker known as metoprolol tartrate and followed for a minimum of 5 months.

Carvedilol demonstrated no effect on blood sugar maintenance, while metoprolol tartrate significantly increased it despite patients taking antidiabetic therapies. Insulin resistance was reduced significantly in the carvedilol arm by 9.1 percent, while metoprolol tartrate had no effect on insulin resistance.

Carvedilol was also associated with a 40 percent reduction in the risk of developing microalbuminuria, an important marker of cardiovascular disease risk, as compared to metoprolol tartrate. Finally, patients taking carvedilol did not gain weight, while patients taking metoprolol tartrate had significant weight gain of 2.6 pounds.

Source: Diabetes Week staff, November 13, 2004