1 in 10 Heart Attack Patients May Have Undiagnosed Diabetes

Diabetes, which causes blood sugar to reach dangerous levels, significantly raises the risk for heart attack. Two out of three people with diabetes die from cardiovascular disease. Suzanne V. Arnold, from the University of Missouri (Missouri, USA), and colleagues studied data collected on 2,854 heart attack patients who did not have a known diagnosis of diabetes in 24 US hospitals to understand the prevalence and recognition of undiagnosed diabetes. They tested the patients' A1C levels, which is a standard test to determine blood sugar levels for the past 2-3 months. Among the patients, 287 (10.1%) were newly diagnosed with diabetes based on the A1C test during their treatment for heart attack. Doctors failed to recognize diabetes in 198 (69%) of the previously undiagnosed patients. Six months after discharge, less than 7% of those who weren't recognized as having diabetes during their hospital stay had started medication for the disease.  The study authors are hopeful that their findings “highlight an important opportunity to improve the recognition of [diabetes mellitus] and, possibly, long-term glycemic control in patients hospitalized with [acute myocardial infarction].”