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VIDEO: Expert discusses debate on HbA1C target for type 2 diabetes

PHILADELPHIA — In this video from the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting, Gerald Smetana, MD, general internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the finding from a session for “Annals Beyond the Guidelines,” a collaboration between the Annals of Internal Medicine and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The session involved two experts who debated the ACP’s guidelines for managing patients with type 2 diabetes, which recommend that the HbA1c target for most adults should be 7% to 8%. The ACP guidelines differ from other diabetes organizations, who recommend less than 7% or less than 6.5%, if possible. Smetana also discussed four large randomized-control trials that helped inform the ACP guidelines.

“What I think was interesting from this, and what I think surprised many of the attendees , was that in the initial results from each of these trials that went out for 5 to 7 years, there was no reduction in macrovascular events,” Smetana said. One study even saw an increased rate of mortality for patient in the intensive arm of the study, he said.

The Annals of Internal Medicine will publish the results of the presentation as a manuscript later this year that will go into more detail on the topic, he said. – by Erin Michael

Disclosures: The Smetana reports no relevant financial disclosures.