Acarbose for Patients With Hypertension and Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Response to Chiasson et al.: Acarbose for the prevention of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance: facts and interpretations concerning the critical analysis of the STOP-NIDDM Trial data

“…In contrast, it confirms most of our objections with regard to the methodology and the results of the STOP-NIDDM Trial [2,3,4,5]. Chiasson et al write: "...for patients with risk of cardiovascular events, the number of patients at risk with acarbose treatment is smaller than the number of patients at risk in the placebo group.…”

“…Also, despite published correspondence on this issue [5], Chiasson et al again fail to comment on the possible case of data suppression. We asked for an explanation of the fact that 61 patients were excluded from the efficacy analysis because of no post-randomisation data, but data on cardiovascular events in these patients have been published by the sponsor of the trial on the Internet [1,5].…”

“…We asked for an explanation of the fact that 61 patients were excluded from the efficacy analysis because of no post-randomisation data, but data on cardiovascular events in these patients have been published by the sponsor of the trial on the Internet [1,5]. In addition, the authors report [4] adverse events in all 1429 patients (Tables 2 and 4).…”

On the potential of acarbose to reduce cardiovascular disease

“…Although not undisputed [62,63], remarkable effects of acarbose on blood pressure and newly diagnosed hypertension have been observed in the randomized controlled STOP-NIDDM trial [64], aiming at preventing type 2 diabetes in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). New cases of hypertension were significantly reduced in the acarbose treated group and the mean blood pressure was also significantly lower in this group at the end of the study.…”