Expert Blog

How would you care for this diabetes patient who survived a heart attack?

Bernard Zinman photo
Bernard Zinman
CM, MD, FRCPC, FACP

Earn up to 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CME credits for the “Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management” interactive case study that allows you to follow a patient through key stages and decision points in her diabetes care. Claim your credits by completing the survey and posttest.

 

Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD):

  • Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease or a stroke two to four times.[i]
  • CVD is the leading cause of mortality in patients with diabetes.[ii]

 

For women, the risks can be even greater:

  • Women with diabetes are up to six times more likely to have CVD than women who do not in part because diabetes reduces the cardiovascular protection estrogen normally provides.[iii]
  • Heart attacks in women with diabetes are more often fatal than heart attacks in men with diabetes.[iv]

 

Advances in type 2 diabetes treatment provide patients with new options for managing their diabetes while protecting their cardiovascular health, but deciding on the best course of action for an individual patient can be difficult. Visit “Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management,” a new interactive case study that allows you to follow a patient – a 62-year-old heart attack survivor living with hypertension, hyperlipidemia and type 2 diabetes – through key stages and decision points in her diabetes care to treat her diabetes and prevent another cardiovascular event.

 

You can earn up to 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CME credits for the case study and completing a survey and posttest.

 

[i] Haffner SJ, Cassells H. Hyperglycemia as a cardiovascular risk factor. Am J Med. 2003. 115(Suppl 8A):6S-11S.

[ii] Cahn A, Cernea S, Raz I. Outcome studies and safety as guide for decision making in treating patients with type 2 diabetes. 2016. http://sessions.endocrine.org/console/player/30700?mediaType=audio&. Published April 2016.

[iii] Heart & Vascular Institute. “Diabetes and Heart Disease in Women.” Johns Hopkins Medicine. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heart_vascular_institute/clinical_service.... Published April 2016. Accessed March 7, 2017.

[iv] Regensteiner JG, Golden S, Huebschmann AG, Barrett-Connor E, Chang AY, Chyun D etal. Sex Differences in the Cardiovascular Consequences of Diabetes Mellitus. Circulation. 2015; 132:2424-2447.