More on metabolic syndrome from Pharmacy Best Practices
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Total Therapeutic Management (TTM), a disease management company in Atlanta, conducted a study to evaluate demographic and clinical characteristics of diabetic patients and characterize the prevalence of risk factors for metabolic syndrome.
The study, based on a chart review of 8,072 patients with diabetes, revealed that 66.7% of patients had three or more risk factors for metabolic syndrome and 76.3%, 50.8% and 43.1% had high blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL, respectively. Despite the potential role of insulin resistance in metabolic syndrome, the use of anti-diabetic agents affecting insulin resistance was relatively low by the study's participants.
As part of TTM's strategy-focusing on physicians-the company is helping physicians better understand how to address each component of metabolic syndrome and how to identify patients at risk through education and recommendations. Ed Perez, CEO of TTM, is concerned that patients at risk for metabolic syndrome are just treated for diabetes when they also should be viewed as cardiovascular patients.
Managed care organizations have put disease management programs in place targeting the component conditions of the syndrome. TTM's study revealed, however, that no favored treatment approach surfaced, making more information warranted.
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