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Diabetes drugs called glitazones, which include Avandia, and Actos have been associated with an increased risk of a vision-threatening complication called diabetic macular edema (DME), which features swelling and fluid accumulation in the retina.

The U.S. study of 996 diabetic macular edema (DME) patients found that those who took glitazones were 2.6 times more likely to develop diabetic macular edema (DME) than those who didn’t take the drugs. Even after adjusting for other factors, the risk of diabetic macular edema (DME) remained 60% higher for patients who took glitazones, said the researchers at the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.

The study, published in the April issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, isn’t the first to suggest a link between glitazones and diabetic macular edema (DME). But it does confirm that the drugs are “modestly associated” with increased risk of diabetic macular edema (DME), which is a common complication of diabetes.

“When treating patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), ophthalmologists should consider the role of the glitazone class of drugs,” the study authors concluded.

“Ocular (eye) complications are an overlooked safety issue of systemic drugs,” noted Dr. Thomas J. Liesegang, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

“Safety is as important as the efficacy of a drug. However, long-term safety is not currently monitored, because the approval process is based on smaller, shorter-term clinical trials. Safety necessarily requires monitoring of treatment in larger groups of people over longer periods of time. This monitoring is often neglected and should be required of all therapies,” Liesegang said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 8:52 am and is filed under Avandia, Dangerous Drugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.