PITTSBURGH, May 24 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health have proposed the first-ever blood pressure and cholesterol goals for people with type 1 diabetes, a group that is at high risk for coronary artery disease and premature death. Research findings will be published in the June issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

"For reasons that are unclear, people with type 1 diabetes have more than double the risk of cardiovascular disease than do those without diabetes, but no guidelines exist to help set goals for two of the most important risk factors for the complications for this disease lipids and blood pressure," said senior investigator Trevor Orchard, M.D., professor of epidemiology, medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Orchards study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, indicates that people with type 1 diabetes should vigorously control these two risk factors, aiming for goals as strict or stricter than those currently in place for people with cardiovascular disease.

Investigators set the goals based on their analysis of data from the Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications (EDC) Study, a 10-year prospective study of 589 adults with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. Study subjects had been diabetic for an average of 20 years. Dr. Orchard and his colleagues looked at the subjects blood pressure, HDL ("good") cholesterol, LDL ("bad") cholesterol and triglyceride levels and noted the points at which subjects died, or developed coronary artery disease or microvascular disease.

Based on these analyses, the researchers suggest the following levels for men and women ages 18-55 with type 1 diabetes: LDL cholesterol, less than 100 mg/dl; HDL cholesterol, more than 45 mg/dl; triglycerides, less than 150 mg/dl; blood pressure, less than 120/80.

Guidelines set by the American Diabetes Association and the National Cholesterol E
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Contact: Kathryn Duda
dudak@msx.upmc.edu
412-624-2607
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
23-May-2001