DALLAS, Sept. 16 -- Wide swings in blood sugar levels can spell trouble, a study of elderly diabetics in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation finds.

Those with the most ups and downs in blood sugar -- indicating poor control of diabetes' damaging effects -- had a two-and-a-half times higher risk of death from heart disease in five years than those with the least blood-sugar variability, according to scientists at the University of Verona in Italy. Such chronic swings in blood-sugar levels are a novel predictor of life expectancy in elderly patients with "non-insulin dependent" diabetes, a disease in which the body doesn't produce or properly use insulin, a hormone.

The Verona Diabetes Study included 566 diabetic men and women age 75 or over. Doctors treating elderly diabetics should "strive to keep glucose (sugar) concentrations as stable as possible," the authors say. "Strict adherence to diet, exercise and prescribed drugs plus regular medical checkups and home blood-sugar monitoring are keys to achieving such stability.

Contact: Michele Muggeo, M.D., University of Verona, Italy: 011-39-45-807-3110.