More heart risks identified for Avandia

A new analysis of care for older diabetics has concluded that those treated with diabetes drug Avandia had a significantly raised risk of heart attack and death.This study follows the widely-read analysis, published in The New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year, suggesting that Avandia raises risks of heart attack 42 percent.

According to the new article, which was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Avandia users had a 60 percent increased risk of death compared with patients taking other oral diabetes meds. Researchers drew this conclusion after analyzing drug use and health outcomes for 159,000 patients age 65 and older who were being treated for Type 2 diabetes in Ontario, Canada's government-run health system. After looking at the 2,268 patients in that population who took Avandia, researchers concluded that for every 100 patients taking Avandia over a four-year period, there'd be five additional deaths, four more heart attacks and three more heart failures.

To find out more about the research:
- read this piece from The New York Times

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