DCCT/EDIC: Incidence of Any Cardiovascular Disease Outcome

• The Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study is a long-term observational follow-up (mean 17 years) to the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), which studied whether the use of intensive therapy as compared with conventional therapy affected the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with type 1 diabetes. Ninety-seven percent of the original DCCT cohort joined the EDIC follow-up (N=1,394).
• A total of 144 cardiovascular events occurred in 83 patients during mean 17 years of follow-up, 46 among 31 patients assigned to intensive treatment and 98 among 52 patients assigned to conventional treatment.
• As compared with conventional treatment, intensive treatment reduced the risk of any CVD outcome by 42% (95% confidence interval, 9% to 63%; P=0.02).
• The authors conclude that the large reduction in the risk of cardiovascular events will improve the projected long-term health and economic benefits of intensive therapy for diabetes.

 DCCT/EDIC Study Research Group. N Engl J Med. 2005;353:2643-2653.