Women with type 2 diabetes see vascular benefits with hormone therapy.

2002 MAR 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Hormone replacement therapy may benefit vascular relaxation in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes.

The subject of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women has raised much controversy in recent years, with some exhorting its value for protecting against heart disease and others warning it may contribute to breast cancer. The jury is still out on both fronts. Now, an interdepartmental team at the University of Glasgow, U.K., has finished a study that suggests for postmenopausal women who also have type 2 diabetes, HRT can improve vascular function.

Heart disease is a well known complication of diabetes, and women who have gone through menopause also stand a heightened risk for heart disease. M. Perera and coauthors in Glasgow looked at the effect of vascular changes in a small group of postmenopausal diabetic women given a combination of the estrogen patch and daily doses of an oral progestin (norethisterone) for 6 months, examining small arteries obtained from gluteal tissues at baseline and after therapy ended. Postmenopausal women without diabetes were controls for the study.

When Perera and colleagues initially exposed diabetic and nondiabetic arteries from the women to acetylcholine, bradykinin, and sodium nitroprusside, three agents that cause vasodilation, they observed significantly different responses.

"Maximal relaxation responses to acetylcholine, bradykinin and sodium nitroprusside in women with diabetes and nondiabetic control subjects were 52 [plus-or-minus sign] 8% versus 96 ...