Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases

Diabetes is a chronic illness that requires continuing medical care and patient self-management education to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. Diabetic people have cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors comparable to those of nondiabetics who have had a myocardial infarction or stroke. Physiologic changes in diabetic hypertensive people include endothelial dysfunction, altered platelet activity, and microalbuminuria, all of which may increase coronary heart disease risk. Hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia have been shown to effect physiologic changes in the vasculature; therefore, establishing normoglycemia, reducing cholesterol levels, and controlling blood pressure are the primary and initial goals in the management of diabetic hypertensive patients. The atherosclerotic risk is greatest in poorly controlled patients, possibly because of associated hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia. Aggressive management of risk factors such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and platelet dysfunction in diabetics has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality in prospective randomized controlled clinical trials. In this article we review the impact of diabetes mellitus on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.