Management of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Racial and Ethnic Minorities with Type-2 Diabetes
Type-2 diabetes, which involves a perilous clustering of cardiovascular risk factors, primarily elevated blood pressure, atherogenic dyslipidemia and increased vascular thrombosis, affects 18 million Americans and is expected to reach almost epidemic proportions in the next decade.1Persons with type-2 diabetes are at a dramatically increased risk for the development of cardiovascular events, specifically acute myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. A diagnosis of diabetes presents the same cardiovascular risk as those who have already had MI, deeming it a ‘coronary risk equivalent’.2More than 65% of deaths in diabetes patients are attributed to heart and vascular disease.1Although mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) has been decreasing overall in the US in the last several decades, the increasing prevalence of type-2 diabetes may ultimately slow or reverse this trend.