Stroke in the patient with diabetes (Part 2) - Prevention and the effects of glucose lowering therapies

Treatments, medical expenses and complications of hospital outpatient healthcare associated with stroke in patients with diabetes in China: a retrospective analysis of the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Database

OBJECTIVES

Diabetes is closely associated with risk of stroke and its adverse sequelae. Approximately 20%-33% of patients with stroke have diabetes. In China, however, it is unclear how stroke affects healthcare utilisation, medications and complications among people with diabetes. This study aimed to analyse the clinical characteristics, treatment options, medical expenses and complications of hospital outpatient healthcare associated with stroke in patients with diabetes in China.

DESIGN

A retrospective, multicentre, observational study.

SETTING

Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Database, with data from 2016 to 2018.

PARTICIPANTS

The study included patients with diabetes whose data included 2016-2018 outpatient medication records and who had Beijing medical insurance. Patients who did not have continuous prescription records for more than 2 months were excluded from the analysis. In total, 2 853 036 people with diabetes were included, and patients who had and did not have a stroke were compared.

RESULTS

In our study, 19.75%-22.30% of patients with diabetes suffered from stroke between 2016 and 2018. The average annual medical cost for a patient diagnosed with diabetes is ¥9606.65, and the cost increases to ¥13 428.39 when diabetes was combined with stroke; thus, stroke increases the medical cost for patients with diabetes by 39.78% (p<0.0001). Among patients with diabetes who had a stroke, 4.76 medications were used (1.8 hypoglycaemic drugs and 2.97 non-hypoglycaemic drugs); these numbers were significantly greater than for patients with diabetes who did not have a stroke receiving both hypoglycaemic drugs and non-hypoglycaemic drugs (p<0.0001). Among patients with diabetes who did not have a stroke, 3.58 medications were used (1.66 hypoglycaemic drugs and 1.92 non-hypoglycaemic drugs). Patients with diabetes who had a stroke also had significantly greater incidences of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, diabetic kidney disease, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic angiopathy than those who did not have a stroke (p<0.0001). These drugs and costs increased with the number of complications (p<0.0001). The increased medical costs for each specific complication are also listed. We also analysed the medical costs and medication regimens stratified by sex, age group and complications.

CONCLUSIONS

Stroke is associated with a significant increase in complications and medications for patients with diabetes and greatly adds to the economic burden of these patients. Early identification of stroke risk factors in patients with diabetes, as well as targeted poststroke diabetes management, is crucial from a socioeconomic perspective for a comprehensive management and treatment of stroke in patients with diabetes.

Repurposing Metformin for the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation: Current Insights

Metformin is an orally effective anti-hyperglycemic drug that despite being introduced over 60 years ago is still utilized by an estimated 120 to 150 million people worldwide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Metformin is used off-label for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and for pre-diabetes and weight loss. Metformin is a safe, inexpensive drug with side effects mostly limited to gastrointestinal issues. Prospective clinical data from the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), completed in 1998, demonstrated that metformin not only has excellent therapeutic efficacy as an anti-diabetes drug but also that good glycemic control reduced the risk of micro- and macro-vascular complications, especially in obese patients and thereby reduced the risk of diabetes-associated cardiovascular disease (CVD). Based on a long history of clinical use and an excellent safety record metformin has been investigated to be repurposed for numerous other diseases including as an anti-aging agent, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, cancer, COVID-19 and also atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is the most frequently diagnosed cardiac arrythmia and its prevalence is increasing globally as the population ages. The argument for repurposing metformin for AF is based on a combination of retrospective clinical data and in vivo and in vitro pre-clinical laboratory studies. In this review, we critically evaluate the evidence that metformin has cardioprotective actions and assess whether the clinical and pre-clinical evidence support the use of metformin to reduce the risk and treat AF.

Diabetes mellitus associated neurovascular lesions in the retina and brain: A review

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is now recognized as a system-wide, autoimmune, inflammatory, microvascular disorder, which, in the retina and brain results in severe multifocal injury now recognized as a leading cause, world-wide, of progressive vision loss and dementia. To address this problem, resulting primarily from variations in glycemia in the prediabetic and overt diabetic states, it must be realized that, although some of the injury processes associated with diabetes may be system wide, there are varying responses, effector, and repair mechanisms that differ from organ to organ or within varying cell structures. Specifically, within the retina, and similarly within the brain cortex, lesions occur of the "neurovascular unit", comprised of focal microvascular occlusions, inflammatory endothelial and pericyte injury, with small vessel leakage resulting in injury to astrocytes, Müller cells, and microglia, all of which occur with progressive neuronal apoptosis. Such lesions are now recognized to occur before the first microaneurysms are visible to imaging by fundus cameras or before they result in detectable symptoms or signs recognizable to the patient or clinician. Treatments, therefore, which currently are not initiated within the retina until edema develops or there is progression of vascular lesions that define the current staging of retinopathy, and in the brain only after severe signs of cognitive failure. Treatments, therefore are applied relatively late with some reduction in progressive cellular injury but with resultant minimal vision or cognitive improvement. This review article will summarize the multiple inflammatory and remediation processes currently understood to occur in patients with diabetes as well as pre-diabetes and summarize as well the current limitations of methods for assessing the structural and functional alterations within the retina and brain. The goal is to attempt to define future screening, monitoring, and treatment directions that hopefully will prevent progressive injury as well as enable improved repair and attendant function.