Early and late onset side effects of short-acting insulin analogue in seven Japanese diabetic patients.

Short-acting insulin analogue has previously shown to be equal to short-acting human regular insulin regarding in vitro characteristics, immunogenicity, and safety. But in the present study, we experienced seven patients who had mild to moderate side effects due to short-acting insulin analogue. These side effects could be divided into two types based on the appearance time; one with early onset and the other with late onset. Early onset side effects include rash, disturbances in walking and general fatigue that can not be explained by the swing in glucose levels. These symptoms appeared 2-3 days after the use of short-acting insulin analogue and disappeared several hours after switching short-acting human regular insulin. The late onset side effect is bilateral leg edema, which appeared 1-2 months after the induction of short-acting insulin analogue and disappeared after several hours by changing to short-acting human regular insulin. We should monitor the early and late onset side effects as diligently as possible when we use short-acting insulin analogue on diabetic patients.