Rate of hypoglycemia in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes can be predicted from glycemic variability data.

BACKGROUND

We set out to study the relationship between different measures of glycemic variability and the rate of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Data were pooled from three 24-week insulin trials including patients on twice-daily (BID) insulin lispro mix 75/25 (75% insulin lispro protamine suspension, 25% insulin lispro) (n=805), daily (QD) insulin glargine (n=1,019), insulin lispro protamine suspension (n=353) (QD or BID), and insulin detemir (n=166) (QD or BID), all with continuation of prestudy oral antihyperglycemic medications. Glycemic variability measures were derived from seven-point self-monitored blood glucose profiles.

RESULTS

At baseline, mean (±SD) age was 56.9±9.7 years, duration of type 2 diabetes was 9.5±6.1 years, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was 8.9±1.1%, and 51.9% were male. Intra-day glucose coefficient of variation (CV), fasting blood glucose, intra-day minimum glucose and inter-day glucose CV at 24 weeks, and intra-day glucose CV at baseline were significantly correlated with the rate of hypoglycemia events between Weeks 12 to 24 (P<0.05 for all measures).

CONCLUSIONS

Intra-day and inter-day glycemic variability is significantly associated with the risk of hypoglycemia in insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes, even after adjusting for mean glucose and HbA1c. The intra-day glycemic variability before starting insulin is significantly associated with the risk of hypoglycemia during insulin treatment, which points at treatment- and patient-related factors mediating this relationship.