Insulin may limit further damage after heart attack

Giving insulin along with clot-busting medications and other drugs after a heart attack may improve the likelihood of survival by limiting inflammation and damage to the heart muscle.

In a study of 32 heart attack patients treated in the emergency room at the University of Buffalo, researchers gave half the participants a low-dose infusion of insulin for 48 hours in addition to the clot-buster reteplase and other common heart attack treatments, including aspirin and the blood thinner heparin. The other half received the usual drugs plus a saline solution.

Patients who got the insulin in addition to standard treatments had lower measures of several inflammatory factors, including C-reactive protein. They also had 60% lower levels of creatine kinase, a protein released by the damaged heart muscle, demonstrating that the insulin helped protect the heart muscle.

The study appeared in the Feb. 24 issue of Circulation.

-- Jane E. Allen