so, just after i posted the blog yesterday, this came through: “FDA Opens Door to Wider Avandia Prescribing” – see http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/43110?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2013-11-26&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g748274d0r&userid=748274&email=gmodest@uphams.org&mu_id=5928254, or your local newspaper. has the slight whiff of the hand of big pharma…..
i can’t figure out why this is an issue (expect from drug company pressure). the data are pretty clear that rosiglitazone (avandia) in several studies is associated with more clinical heart disease. it has adverse lipid effects. and, if one were to choose a glitazone, there are data that pioglitazone is beneficial to lipids and leads to favorable cardiac outcomes (see dm pioglit PROACTIVE study. lancet 2005, or Lancet 2005; 366: 1279–89).
and the beat goes on.
geoff