For people with type 2 diabetes who suffer a Heart attack , keeping their blood sugar levels under control has a lot to do with how well they fare, according to a multicenter European study.

However, intensive insulin therapy does not seem to be necessary to achieve the best outcomes. “Insulin does not seem to be the only solution, but tight glucose control by any means is very important.” Dr. Lars Ryden from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

Ryden advises doctors to “use all available tools to keep blood glucose…down.”

He and his and colleagues compared three glucose-control strategies - two insulin-based and one based on standard practice - to treat more than 1200 diabetic patients after they suffered a suspected Heart attack .

Although blood glucose levels were lower with the two insulin therapies after the first 24 hours, glucose control over time did not differ among the three treatment approaches, Ryden’s group reports in the April issue of the European Heart Journal.

Also, the death rate did not significantly differ among the three treatment groups.

What did make a difference was the blood sugar level, with high glucose levels being “one of the most important prognostic predictors” of a patient dying.

SOURCE: European Heart Journal, April 2005.