According to a new study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies, drugs should be the first line of treatment for those diabetes' patients who also suffer from heart disease; and angioplasty or bypass surgery be added only in the severest of cases.

The findings of the study - called BARI-2D - were presented at the annual meet of the American Diabetes Association, in New Orleans on Sunday. The 2001-commenced study pertained to testing different ways - specifically medicines and/or surgery - for controlling both diabetes and heart disease. For the extensive study, spanning across six countries, researchers enrolled and observed 2,368 patients, over a five-year period.

While one part of the study looked at the comparative analysis of surgical treatment of blocked arteries vis-à-vis intensive medical treatment; the other compared drugs that increase insulin availability to those that amplify the body's sensitivity to insulin. The finding showed that while 88.3 percent patients survived in the revascularization group for five years; 87.8 percent survived in the medical treatment group.

With the study also indicating that nearly 40 percent of diabetics in the medical treatment group sooner or later required revascularization, Dr. Robert L. Frye, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, said: "…that means 60 percent never required revascularization," which is not only expensive but also potentially dangerous.