Drug Fights Diabetic Eye Disease

Sept. 27 -- THURSDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) -- New studies published this week in the The Lancet provide further evidence that candesartan, a blood pressure medicine, can cut the risk and severity of retinopathy in people who have diabetes.

"We suggest that clinicians may wish to consider using candesartan [brand name Atacand] in people with type 1 diabetes with hard-to-control blood glucose, who do not currently have retinopathy," said one study's British co-author, Dr. Nish Chaturvedi, of the National Heart and Lung Institute and Imperial College at St Mary's, London. "In type 2 diabetes, in people with established retinopathy who become hypertensive, again the clinician may wish to consider candesartan from the many blood pressure-lowering agents available, as it appears to have this additional beneficial effect on regression of retinopathy."

About 95 percent of diabetics suffer from type 2 diabetes, where cells gradually lose sensitivity to insulin. The illness is often linked to obesity. Around 5 percent of diabetics have the type 1 form, a condition in which the pancreas is unable to produce insulin to regulate blood sugar.

Diabetic retinopathy is a potentially blinding illness linked to changes in retinal blood vessels. It is one of the major complications of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Intense control of blood sugar levels is the only proven way to reduce incidence and progression of retinopathy, but this kind of control can be elusive. And even when patients do achieve strict control of blood sugars, retinopathy is not always kept at bay.

Previous studies have indicated that drugs known as renin-angiotensin system blockers, which include candesartan, might prevent or reduce the severity of diabetic retinopathy.

This most current research consists of two trials, with three arms total.

In the DIRECT-Prevent 1 study, more than 1,400 type 1 diabetics with existing retinopathy were randomized to receive either Atacand or a placebo; in the DIRECT-Protect 1 trial, more than 1,900 type-1 diabetics with existing retinopathy were randomized to receive either the drug or a placebo.