SILVER SPRING, Md., June 28 (UPI) -- A U.S. study of more than 227,000 patients found those prescribed the diabetes drug Avandia had a higher risk of heart trouble and death, researchers said.
Study leader David J. Graham of the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Md., and colleagues found compared with Actos, or pioglitazone, Avandia, or rosiglitazone, was associated with an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events including heart failure and death.
However, Graham said the observational study of Medicare patients with a mean age of 74.4 years was not randomized so the finding may reflect unrecognized biases or confounding.
The findings are published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
