Improvement of Heart Rate Variability with Benfothiamine and Alpha-Lipoic Acid in Type 2 Diabetic Patients – Pilot Study Pages 49-55

Zorica Rašić-Milutinović1, Zoran Gluvić1, Gordana Peruničić-Peković2, Dušan Miličević1,Milena Lačković1 and Biljana Penčić3

1Department of Endocrinology, Clinical Hospital Zemun/Belgrade, University of Medicine Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia; 2Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Clinical Hospital Zemun/Belgrade, University of Medicine Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia; 3Departmant of Cardiology, Clinical Hospital “Dr Dragiša Mišović“, University of Medicine Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12970/2311-052X.2014.02.01.9

Abstract: According to hypothesis that the lower level of bioactive thiamine, vitamin B1, is partially responsible for microvascular complications in type 2 diabetes patients (T2DM), we investigated whether the supplementation with benfothiamine and alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) could improve cardiacautonomic neuropathy (CAN) in those patients. Heart rate variability (HRV) was used as a tool for the assessment of equilibrium in the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the control of heart rate in T2DM patients, without serious co-morbidity. Blood samples for glucose, HbA1c, triglycerides, cholesterol, and HDL-C were obtained before and at the end of treatment. High-frequency ln (HFln), was significantly lower (p< 0.01) and low- frequency/ high frequency ln (LF/HFln)was significantly higher (p<0.01) in T2DM. After 12 weeks of supplementation, very low-frequency ln (VLFln), HFln and LF/HFln indices were changed significantly (p=0.03; p=0.01; p=0.04, respectively), and we concluded that benfothiamine associated with ALA could participate in repairing cardiac autonomic dysfunction in T2DM.

Keywords: Cardiac autonomic neuropathy, heart rate variability, type 2 diabetes, benfothiamine, alpha-lipoic acid. Read more