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Glitazone use may lead to development of diabetic macular edema
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Patients with diabetes who take glitazone drugs may be at an increased risk of developing diabetic macular edema than nonusers.
According to a study in the patient cohort of Kaiser Permanente Southern California — a population with about 170,000 patients being treated for diabetes — patients taking glitazones were more likely to develop macular edema, with an odds ratio of 2.6.
Even after confounding factors such as age, glycemic control and insulin use were controlled for, glitazone use was still associated with diabetic macular edema, the study authors said.
Glitazones (thiazolidinediones), a class of drugs that include Avandia (rosiglitazone, GlaxoSmithKline) and Actos (pioglitazone, Takeda), are frequently used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes because they can help mitigate insulin resistance.
The exact mechanism of action that raises the risk of diabetic macular edema is not clear, the investigators said. In addition, while the patient population used in the study captured a large number of glitazone users, other potential confounding factors were not available from the electronic records, including duration of diabetes, renal status, hypertension, change of anti-diabetic medications and race.