Chest Pain Doesn’t Worsen Heart Disease in Diabetics

The presence of cardiac chest pain, or angina, does not seem to affect the heart disease outcomes of patients with diabetes, according to a report in the European Heart Journal. By contrast, the presence of high blood pressure or shortness of breath predicted a worse outcome.

The presence of cardiac chest pain, or angina, does not seem to affect the heart disease outcomes of patients with diabetes, according to a report in the European Heart Journal. By contrast, the presence of high blood pressure or shortness of breath predicted a worse outcome. Dr. Daniel S. Berman from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, and colleagues assessed the rate of heart disease in 1737 diabetic patients without a history of heart disease and evaluated the impact of patient symptoms on their outcomes. Nearly half the patients had no symptoms, yet a proportion still had evidence of heart disease. Patients with angina did just as well as these symptom-less patients. Patients with shortness of breath or high blood pressure, however, were more likely than their symptom-less counterparts to experience fatal and non-fatal heart attacks. High blood pressure increased the risk of such events by 83 percent, the results indicate, and shortness of breath more than doubled the risk. (source: Reuters Health, European Heart Journal, May 2004)