Comparing the Effect of Dipeptidyl-Peptidase 4 Inhibitors and Sulfonylureas on Albuminuria in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Prospective Open-Label Study

Estimation of Serum Creatinine, Aspartate Aminotransferase, Alanine Transaminase, and Hemoglobin A1c% Levels among Diabetic Patients using Metformin/Dipeptide Peptidase-4 Inhibitor Combination and Insulin – A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, imposing a considerable burden on health systems and societies as it affects both individuals and their families and has a large impact on the economic and social development of a country. Nowadays, to treat diabetes, patients are taking drugs such as metformin in combination with dipeptide peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and insulin for their treatment. There are many physiological and pathological changes while taking drugs for treating diabetes.AIM: Through this research, we can have an idea about the health of the patient and help to detect the level in which different drugs are affecting the patient’s kidney and liver. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done on diabetes type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients who are undergoing treatment with insulin and DPP-4 inhibitors/metformin combination drugs. The study continued for 3 months including preparation, practice, and data analysis. RESULTS: In this study, our results show there is no significant change in all biochemical parameters: aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase, creatinine, and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) between diabetic patients treated with insulin and metformin/DPP-4 combination. CONCLUSION: Metformin/DPP-4 combination gives a better glycemic control than other medications, whereas the levels of AST, creatinine, and HbA1c are unaffected using either insulin or metformin/DPP-4 inhibitors combination.

Cardiovascular safety and efficacy of metformin-SGLT2i versus metformin-sulfonylureas in type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Diabetes is a serious threat to global health and among the top 10 causes of death, with nearly half a billion people living with it worldwide. Treating patients with diabetes tend to become more challenging due to the progressive nature of the disease. The role and benefits of combination therapies for the management of type 2 diabetes are well-documented, while the comparative safety and efficacy among the different combination options have not been elucidated. We aimed to systematically synthesize the evidence on the comparative cardiovascular safety and efficacy of combination therapy with metformin-sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors versus metformin-sulfonylureas in patients with type 2 diabetes. We searched MEDLINE-PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov up to 15 August 2019 without restriction in the year of publication. We included randomized controlled trials of patients with type 2 diabetes who were on metformin-sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors or metformin-sulphonylureas combination therapy at least for a year. The primary endpoints were all-cause mortality and serious adverse events, and the secondary endpoints were cardiovascular mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, hypoglycemia, and changes in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), body weight, fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. We used a random-effects meta-analysis model to estimate mean differences for continuous outcomes and risk ratio for dichotomous outcomes. We followed PICOS description model for defining eligibility and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines for reporting results. Of 3,190 citations, we included nine trials involving 10,974 participants. The pooled analysis showed no significant difference in all-cause mortality (risk ration [RR] = 0.93, 95% CI [0.52, 1.67]), serious adverse events (RR = 0.96, 95% CI [0.79, 1.17]) and adverse events (RR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.02]) between the two, but in hypoglycemia (RR = 0.13, 95% CI [0.10, 0.17], P < 0.001). Participants taking metformin-sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors showed a significantly greater reduction in HbA1c (mean difference [MD] = − 0.10%, 95% CI [− 0.17, − 0.03], body weight (MD = − 4.57 kg, 95% CI [− 4.74, − 4.39], systolic blood pressure (MD = − 4.77 mmHg, 95% CI [− 5.39, − 4.16]), diastolic blood pressure (MD = − 2.07 mmHg, 95% CI [− 2.74, − 1.40], and fasting plasma glucose (MD = − 0.55 mmol/L, 95% CI [− 0.69, − 0.41]), p < 0.001. Combination therapy of metformin and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors is a safe and efficacious alternative to combination therapy of metformin and sulphonylureas for patients with type 2 diabetes who are at risk of cardiovascular comorbidity. However, there remains a need for additional long-term randomized controlled trials as available studies are very limited and heterogeneous.