Managing Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Until recently, patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and ASCVD depended on a multifaceted medication strategy to control glucose, blood pressure, and lipid levels.

Management of patients with these conditions has undergone important changes, however. Instead of treating microvascular diabetes complications with one set of drugs and macrovascular tissue complications with another, two drug classes — sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1) — have shown significant improvement in lowering blood glucose, reducing risk for cardiovascular endpoints, and reducing mortality.

Dr Kashif Munir of the University of Maryland Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology evaluates these classes of drugs and makes treatment recommendations on the basis of recent evidence.

Medscape © 2020 WebMD, LLC

Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.

Cite this: Managing Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes - Medscape - Sep 11, 2020.