Metformin vs. Sulfonylureas for Diabetes

Metformin vs. Sulfonylureas for Diabetes

Study Shows Sulfonylureas Have Higher Heart Failure Risk Than Metformin

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 4, 2009 -- Concerns that the diabetes drugs Avandia and Actos raise the risk for heart failure led the FDA to require label changes warning of the potential risk two years ago.

Now a new study suggests this concern might be unfounded, but it also raises questions about a different class of oral diabetes drugs that have been used since the 1950s: sulfonylureas.

Researchers reported that diabetes patients who used sulfonylureas had a higher risk of death from all causes and a higher risk of heart failure than diabetes patients who used the most widely prescribed diabetes drug, metformin.

Compared with metformin, also known as Glucophage, single-drug treatment with first- and second-generation sulfonylureas was associated with up to a 61% increased risk for death. Users of second-generation sulfonylureas had up to a 30% higher risk for congestive heart failure.

Patients treated with Actos or Avandia did not appear to have a greater risk for heart attacks than those treated with metformin.

Read more...
http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20091204/metformin-vs-sulfonylureas-for-diabetes?src=RSS_PUBLIC

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