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CNN Live At Daybreak

New Warning About Popular Diabetes Drug

Aired December 09, 2003 - 06:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A new warning this morning about a popular diabetes drug. It's good for your kidneys, but may be bad for your heart.
Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is here with more.

What drug are we talking about?

DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, there are actually two drugs. One's called Actos and the other is called Avandia. Now, these medications are used to lower blood sugars. They're -- they can be used alone or in conjunction with insulin. And this warning is coming from both the American Heart Association and the American Diabetic Association, because what they're finding is that more patients on these medications are having congestive heart failure symptoms. And so this blue ribbon panel took a look at all the evidence and this is what they had to say.

First, people who have heart failure that's moderate to severe should not be on these medications. People who don't have heart failure but do have heart problems -- and that means their heart's not pumping well -- need to be careful. You can still take low doses of these medications, but watch for warning signs of heart failure.

And let's take a look at those. Warning signs of heart failure include swelling in your feet, sudden weight gain that's usually more than six pounds, shortness of breath or fatigue. So if you have any of these symptoms and you're on these medications, you need to call your doctor immediately. Your doctor may then lower your dose or decide to stop it entirely.

COSTELLO: So all these years these drugs have been good things, but now all of a sudden they're not.

Why? Why do the drugs do this?

FRYHOFER: Well, they don't think that they're causing any damage to the heart muscle. In fact, it's -- what they think is happening is these drugs cause a little bit of fluid retention and this little bit of fluid retention is enough to tip some people into congestive heart failure.

Now, these drugs actually have some good effects. These drugs, they lower triglyceride levels. They have good effects on the lipid profiles. They do good things for the HDL. They change the LDL particles into these dense particles that are very atherogenic and to fluff the LDL particles that aren't so bad. But now we have this, these reports. And I want to point out that this is a small percentage. Only about one to three percent of patients are having these symptoms. And I actually talked to the lead author of the study yesterday.

COSTELLO: Oh, OK. Thank you for bringing us the latest information.

FRYHOFER: Sure.

COSTELLO: We really appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 9, 2003 - 06:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A new warning this morning about a popular diabetes drug. It's good for your kidneys, but may be bad for your heart.
Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is here with more.

What drug are we talking about?

DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, there are actually two drugs. One's called Actos and the other is called Avandia. Now, these medications are used to lower blood sugars. They're -- they can be used alone or in conjunction with insulin. And this warning is coming from both the American Heart Association and the American Diabetic Association, because what they're finding is that more patients on these medications are having congestive heart failure symptoms. And so this blue ribbon panel took a look at all the evidence and this is what they had to say.

First, people who have heart failure that's moderate to severe should not be on these medications. People who don't have heart failure but do have heart problems -- and that means their heart's not pumping well -- need to be careful. You can still take low doses of these medications, but watch for warning signs of heart failure.

And let's take a look at those. Warning signs of heart failure include swelling in your feet, sudden weight gain that's usually more than six pounds, shortness of breath or fatigue. So if you have any of these symptoms and you're on these medications, you need to call your doctor immediately. Your doctor may then lower your dose or decide to stop it entirely.

COSTELLO: So all these years these drugs have been good things, but now all of a sudden they're not.

Why? Why do the drugs do this?

FRYHOFER: Well, they don't think that they're causing any damage to the heart muscle. In fact, it's -- what they think is happening is these drugs cause a little bit of fluid retention and this little bit of fluid retention is enough to tip some people into congestive heart failure.

Now, these drugs actually have some good effects. These drugs, they lower triglyceride levels. They have good effects on the lipid profiles. They do good things for the HDL. They change the LDL particles into these dense particles that are very atherogenic and to fluff the LDL particles that aren't so bad. But now we have this, these reports. And I want to point out that this is a small percentage. Only about one to three percent of patients are having these symptoms. And I actually talked to the lead author of the study yesterday.

COSTELLO: Oh, OK. Thank you for bringing us the latest information.

FRYHOFER: Sure.

COSTELLO: We really appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com