The complications associated with diabetic vasculopathy are commonly grouped into two categories: microvascular and macrovascular complications. In diabetes, macrovascular disease is the commonest cause of mortality and morbidity and is responsible for high incidence of vascular diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction and peripheral vascular diseases. Macrovascular diseases are traditionally thought of as due to underlying obstructive atherosclerotic diseases affecting major arteries. Pathological changes of major blood vessels leading to functional and structural abnormalities in diabetic vessels include endothelial dysfunction, reduced vascular compliance and atherosclerosis. Besides, advanced glycation end product formation interacts with specific receptors that lead to overexpression of a range of cytokines. Haemodynamic pathways are activated in diabetes and are possibly amplified by concomitant systemic hypertension. Apart from these, hyperglycaemia, non-enzymatic glycosylation, lipid modulation, alteration of vasculature and growth factors activation contribute to development of diabetic vasculopathy. This review focuses on pathophysiology and pathogenesis of diabetes-associated macrovasculopathy.

Rosiglitazone significantly reversed preclinical vasculopathy in IGT as evident by significant decrease in PWV and AI after 1 year of treatment. Ramipril also reduced large artery stiffness as shown by significant decrease of AI after 1 year of treatment in IGT. Further trials are needed for a longer period of time, maybe with higher doses, to show whether rosiglitazone/ramipril can reverse preclinical vasculopathy in T2DM.

Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for increased morbidity and mortality in people with diabetes. Diabetic macrovasculopathy is associated with structural and functional changes in large arteries, which causes endothelial dysfunction, increased arterial stiffness, or decreased arterial distensability. Diabetic complications can be controlled and avoided by strict glycemic control, maintaining normal lipid profiles, regular physical exercise, adopting a healthy lifestyle and pharmacological interventions. Treatment goals for patients with type 2 diabetes specify targets for glycemia and other cardiometabolic risk factors, for example, hypertension and dyslipidemia. In recent years, special attention has been devoted to both thiazolidindiones (TZDs) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors as clinical trials revealed that these drugs may reduce the rate of progression to diabetes or delay the onset of diabetes, regression of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) to normoglycemia and reduces the composite of all-cause mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke in patients with diabetes. This review focuses on the potential roles of rosiglitazone, a member of TZD class of antidiabetic agents, and ramipril, an ACE inhibitor, in preventing the preclinical macrovasculopathy in diabetes and IGT population.

IntroductionThe aim of the study is to investigate whether standard doses of rosiglitazone (4 mg/daily) and ramipril (5 mg/daily) can reverse pre-clinical macrovasculopathy in newly diagnosed never treated type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients.MethodsIn this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 33 T2DM patients were randomized to rosiglitazone (4 mg/daily) or ramipril (5 mg/daily) or placebo for 1 year. Hemodynamic variables were measured at 3 treatment phases and pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AI) were measured throughout the treatment period.ResultIn diabetic patients, PWV (P = 0.037) and AI (P = 0.005) with ramipril and AI (P < 0.001) with rosiglitazone were significantly reduced during overall treatment period from the baseline; however, these differences were not significant in comparison to placebo.Discussion and conclusionThe present study showed that treatment with standard doses of rosiglitazone and ramipril are not adequate to reverse pre-clinical vasculopathy in T2DM. The lack of benefit in newly diagnosed T2DM may be because of the relatively short-term intervention and/or the use of lower doses of rosiglitazone/ramipril. Further trials are needed for a longer period of time, possibly with higher doses, to show whether rosiglitazone/ramipril can reverse pre-clinical vasculopathy in T2DM (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00489229).