Diabetes and Heart Failure: A Marriage of Inconvenience

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure are growing public health problems and are expected to worsen in the next decade. There is an inarguable link between diabetes and heart failure but only recently has there been an effort to elucidate the underlying pathophysiologic connection resulting in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Traditionally, diabetes and heart failure have been treated as 2 distinct disease entities, but recent advances in individual therapies have shown remarkable concomitant improvements in both diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes. This article aims to review the key connections in the epidemiology and etiopathophysiology of type 2 diabetes and heart failure.

Keywords: Diabetes; Diabetic cardiomyopathy; Heart failure; Hyperglycemia.