Study Finds Less Heart Disease in Black Patients

Black patients with type 2 diabetes experiencemore heart attacks, strokes, and end-stage kidneydisease, compared with whites. Yet, blacks appear tohave considerably lower rates of clinical coronaryartery disease, compared with whites, according tostudy reported in Diabetologia (December 2005). Thestudy involved >1100 patients with type 2 diabetesparticipating in a diabetes heart study.

For the study, the researchers investigatedwhether there were ethnic differences in theamount of calcified plaque found in the coronaryand carotid arteries. The researchers determinedthat calcified plaque in the arteries was significantlylower in blacks than whites. The black participants,however, had a more negative risk factor profile anddramatically thicker walls of the carotid artery.