The new rosiglitazone story: Its place today in Type 2 diabetes management

ADOPT suggests that rosiglitazone, ahead of traditional therapies, can meet patient needs with respect to long-term glycaemic control, yet the recent safety debate, stimulated by retrospective meta-analysis, has seriously affected physician confidence to use it. Other recent evidence, including from a number of long-term outcome studies, does not confirm or exclude a cardiovascular risk signal for rosiglitazone, and evaluation of this data has led EMEA to support continued use of rosiglitazone, albeit with a recommendation not to use in patients with a previous cardiovascular history. Where does this leave us? Rosiglitazone remains the only oral blood glucose lowering agent to have demonstrated nearly 5 years of blood glucose control. Patients earlier in their disease, free of known cardiovascular disease, are just the patients to benefit most from long term glucose target achievement. (C) 2009 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.