Effect of Intensive Glycemic and Blood Pressure Control on QT Prolongation in Diabetes: The ACCORD Trial.

Pubmed ID: 32732305

Pubmed Central ID: PMC7809716

Journal: Diabetes

Publication Date: Oct. 1, 2020

Affiliation: Section of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC.

MeSH Terms: Humans, Proportional Hazards Models, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Blood Glucose, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Long QT Syndrome

Authors: Bertoni AG, Soliman EZ, Yeboah J, Whalen SP, Bhave PD, Singleton MJ

Cite As: Singleton MJ, Soliman EZ, Bertoni AG, Whalen SP, Bhave PD, Yeboah J. Effect of Intensive Glycemic and Blood Pressure Control on QT Prolongation in Diabetes: The ACCORD Trial. Diabetes 2020 Oct;69(10):2186-2193. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Studies:

Abstract

Compared with standard glycemic control, intensive glycemic control caused increased mortality in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial. Preliminary data from several studies suggest that intensive glycemic control is associated with QT prolongation, which may lead to ventricular arrhythmias as a possible explanation of this increased mortality. We sought to assess the effects of intensive glycemic control and intensive blood pressure control on the risk of incident QT prolongation. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risk of incident QT prolongation (>460 ms in women or >450 ms in men) in the intensive versus standard glycemic control arms. Over a combined 48,634 person-years of follow-up (mean 4.9), 634 participants (6.4%) developed a prolonged QTc. Participants in the intensive glycemic control arm did not have an increased risk of QT prolongation. Similarly, a strategy of intensive blood pressure control did not result in a significant change in risk of prolonged QTc. Sensitivity analyses using alternative QT correction formulas (Hodges and Bazett) yielded overall similar findings. In conclusion, the increased mortality observed in the intensive glycemic control arm in the ACCORD trial is not likely to be explained by QT prolongation leading to lethal ventricular arrhythmias.