Thiazide Exposure and Cardiovascular Risk in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Point of Clarification

Abstract

A recently published analysis in Hypertension suggests that thiazide use, versus nonuse, is associated with excess risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus enrolled in the ACCORD trial (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes). Here, we replicate these findings using the same publicly available datasets and following their reported methods. We further show that possible misclassification of thiazide exposure exists in the original analysis. We perform alternative analyses that correct for this misclassification to highlight the impact that misclassification can have on observed associations between an exposure (eg, thiazides) and outcomes (eg, stroke and major adverse cardiovascular events).