MK News – "Be careful when you change diabetes medications"

Metformin, a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, may be badociated with a higher risk of diabetic complications than metformin alone, according to a study found. A team of McGill University researchers, Sammy Sue, reported the medical records of 77,138 people with diabetes mellitus (mean age 64 years), who started taking metformin in 1998 and later. 2013, and Medical Express reported on Tuesday.

Of these, 25,699 were treated with metformin alone or in combination with sulfonylureas, with poor glycemic control.

As a result of the badysis, patients treated with sulfonylurea or in combination received metformin alone The risk of myocardial infarction was 26%, the risk of all-cause mortality was 28% and the risk of severe hypoglycemia was seven times higher than in one patient, said Professor Sue

.

Compared to the sulfonylurea group in combination with metformin and the completely sulfonylurea group, the latter was 51% higher than the previous group, and the latter group had a higher risk of death from disease. cardiovascular. But the risk of all-cause death was 23% higher.

However, there was no difference between the two groups as to the risk of cerebral infarction, cardiovascular death and hypoglycemia.

These results indicate that sulfonylurea

Thus, when metformin is to be converted to sulfonylurea, it is necessary to completely replace it with metformin alone because it is badociated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction. , hypoglycemia and death from all causes. "It is advantageous to continue the administration of metformin with sulfonylureas", [19659002] However, as it is a simple observational study, he pointed out that it is not safe to 39 is not a causal link between an increased risk of sulfonylurea and an increased risk of complications.

Other confounding factors influenced this result He added, however, that the results could be generalized because the size of the patients to be compared is significantly greater.

The results of this study were published in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ)

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