Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes

Both micro-vascular and macro-vascular complications increase premature deaths in patients with diabetes. Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and ischemic stroke are known to be highly prevalent among patients with diabetes. Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) accounts for 80% of deaths in people suffering from diabetes. There is strong evidence that diabetes is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. In addition, non-diabetic hyperglycemia defined as Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) or Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) was also associated with risk of CVD in some, but not in all studies. Randomized controlled clinical trials have confirmed that intensive glucose control can reduce the risk of micro-vascular complications among patients with diabetes. However, whether intensive glycemic control is of great benefit to CVD reduction among patients with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance is still inconclusive. The association between glycemic levels and risk of hypertension, CHD and ischemic stroke will be discussed in this chapter.

Keywords: Diabetic and non-diabetic hyperglycemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, intensive glucose control, diabetes and antihypertensive drugs