[Long-term intervention studies of diabetic macroangiopathy in Japan and western countries]

Diabetes is a strong and independent predictor of cardiovascular disease that seriously affects mortality and morbidity of patients. Risk of macroangiopathy starts to increase from very early stages of diabetes compared to microangiopathy, therefore aggressive and early treatment is necessary to reduce its risk. Results of previous intervention studies suggest that treatment of each single risk factor is somewhat effective but not enough to achieve sufficient protection from macroangiopathy events, therefore simultaneous interventions of many cardiovascular risk factors are required. At this moment, intervention studies on East Asian patients are very limited and extensive future investigations are expected.