Heart Talks

A Japanese diabetes drug helps slowing the buildup of plaque in the heart arteries and helps combat heart disease.

Actos, made by the Japanese lab Taketa, was compared in 18-month clinical trials of 543 patients with the drug Amaryl manufactured by the French company Sanofi.

It was found that Actos is better than Amaryl at slowing clogging of the arteries in patients with both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The people taking Actos had no visible increase in arterial plaque, registering a 0.16% fall, while people prescribed Amaryl had the growth of plaque of 0.73%.

The Cleveland Clinic researchers behind the new findings say this is the first time that a diabetes medication has been shown to slow atherosclerosis.

Actos is a relatively new drug, whereas Amaryl has been available for decades.

Atherosclerosis or plaque buildup is particularly aggressive in patients with diabetes - aggressive enough to make cardiovascular disease the cause of death in about 75% of patients with diabetes.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.

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