Effect of Rosiglitazone on Myocardial Blood Flow Regulation in Type 2 Diabetes

The overall hypothesis to be tested is that increased insulin resistance contributes to abnormal cardiac blood flow regulation in type 2 diabetic patients, which can be reversed by 6 months treatment with rosiglitazone. The planned experimental approach will be to utilize nuclear medicine techniques to evaluate whether the administration of rosiglitazone for 6 months can reverse regional deficits in myocardial blood flow and glucose utilization in type 2 diabetes in a randomized double blind controlled study. These studies will help elucidate the potential of rosiglitazone to correct deficits of myocardial blood flow complicating diabetes with the overall aim being the eventual prevention of sudden cardiac death.