Researchers also found an increase in cardiovascular disease odds
MONDAY, March 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Even one episode of severe hypoglycemia could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or death in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2017 Scientific Sessions, held from March 7 to 10 in Portland, Ore.
The research included 1,198 adults with type 2 diabetes who were followed for an average of 15 years. Participants were between 45 and 64 years old.
The researchers found that 192 patients in the study had a hypoglycemic episode that required an emergency department visit. One-third of those patients died within three years of that episode. During the study period, the risk of cardiovascular disease or death was twice as high among patients who’d had severe hypoglycemia than among those who had not.
“Hypoglycemia is clearly an under-recognized risk factor for death and cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes,” senior author Elizabeth Selvin, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said in a university news release.
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