“ ACCORD,” Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes   Sponsor and Initiator     National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)   Minnesota/Iowa Network Principal Investigators     Richard Bergenstal, MD, Minnesota International Diabetes Center Richard Grimm, MD, PhD, MPH, Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research Karen Margolis, MD, MPH, Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research   Minnesota/Iowa Network Project Manager     Brenda Kirpach, CCRA, Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research 612-341-7922   Description     This trial addresses the challenges to cardiovascular health of persons with type 2 diabetes by testing three complementary medical treatment strategies. Participants are randomly assigned to a treatment regimen involving either aggressive or standard control of blood sugar. Then, depending on their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, they are assigned to either a blood pressure intervention or blood fat intervention. There are also two substudies for enrolled ACCORD participants, Accord-Mind and Accord-Eye. The Mind substudy researches the relationship between diabetes, glycemic treatment, and cognitive impairment. The Eye substudy compares the effect of standard diabetes treatment to intensive diabetes treatment on the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy.   Role of the Berman Center     The Berman Center coordinates the activities of the Minnesota/Iowa Clinical Center Network. This network has six clinical sites in Minnesota and Iowa, five in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. This network is one of seven networks across the US and Canada. As the Network Hub, the Berman Center supports recruitment efforts of individual sites, and oversees protocol management at each clinical site. This network’s recruitment goal is 1250 adults with type 2 diabetes.   Basic enrollment information     Participants must have Type 2 Diabetes and be either:     • 40 to 54 years of age with a history of heart attack, stroke, heart surgery, or other heart disease     OR     • 55 to 79 years of age   Abstract     Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) at rates two to four times higher than non-diabetic populations of similar demographic characteristics. They also experience increased rates of nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke. Despite the importance of this health problem in North America, there are few definitive data that could illuminate the possibility of reducing CVD event rates in diabetic patients by intensive glycemic control, and by control of other CVD risk factors. Read the summary abstract.