Research

Hormonal

Intensive glucose lowering treatment reduces the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction and microalbuminuria, but these benefits disappear when restricted to high-quality double-blind trials.

While intensive glucose lowering might slightly reduce the risk of non-fatal heart attacks or early kidney signs (microalbuminuria), this benefit is not robust enough to be seen in the most rigorous studies. Given the increased risk of dangerous low blood sugar, these marginal gains may not be worth the trade-off for many patients.

LimitedQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Intensive therapy was, however, associated with reductions in the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction (0.85, 0.74 to 0.96, P<0.001), and microalbuminuria (0.90, 0.85 to 0.96, P<0.001)... In analysis restricted to high quality studies (Jadad score >3), intensive treatment was not associated with any significant risk of reductions
Rémy Boussageon et al. · BMJ · 2011

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 13 RCTs, but sensitivity analysis on high-quality studies negates the primary finding of benefit.

Source

Effect of intensive glucose lowering treatment on all cause mortality, cardiovascular death, and microvascular events in type 2 diabetes: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Rémy Boussageon et al. · BMJ · 2011

DOI 10.1136/bmj.d4169

Meta-analysis · 13 studiesCited 807×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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