DOI: 10.36347/sasjm.2022.v08i06.004

Pages: 397-399

Diabetes has become in a few years a veritable epidemic affecting several million people in the world. The cardiovascular complications are the leading cause of death in diabetics. More particularly, cardiac involvement is essentially summarized in ischemic heart disease, cardiac autonomic neuropathy and more recently described diabetic cardiomyopathy, a specific entity responsible for – or contributing to – the onset of heart failure which is related to a diastolic dysfunction preceding an alteration of the systolic function and whose prognosis makes all the seriousness of this pathology. Indeed, large epidemiological studies have demonstrated that diabetes is an independent risk factor for heart failure. These data are supported by numerous preclinical studies, highlighting metabolic abnormalities, calcium homeostasis, or even neuro-hormonal, in models of diabetes. Optimal glycemic control appears to limit the incidence and severity of heart failure in diabetics. The treatment of diabetic cardiomyopathy is no different from that of non-diabetic heart failure patients. A better understanding of this entity therefore necessitates close collaboration between cardiologists and diabetologists.