FOR THE U.K. PROSPECTIVE DIABETES STUDY GROUPOBJECTIVE -To evaluate the efficacy of the addition of insulin when maximal sulfonylurea therapy is inadequate in individuals with type 2 diabetes.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -Glycemic control, hypoglycemia, and body weight were monitored over 6 years in 826 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes in 8 of 23 U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) centers that used a modified protocol. Patients were randomly allocated to a conventional glucose control policy, primarily with diet (n ϭ 242) or an intensive policy with insulin alone (n ϭ 245), as in the main study. However, for patients randomized to an intensive policy with sulfonylurea (n ϭ 339), insulin was added automatically if the fasting plasma glucose remained Ͼ108 mg/dl (6.0 mmol/l) despite maximal sulfonylurea doses.RESULTS -Over 6 years, ϳ53% of patients allocated to treatment with sulfonylurea required additional insulin therapy. Median HbA 1c in the sulfonylurea Ϯ insulin group was significantly lower (6.6%, interquartile range [IQR] 6.0 -7.6) than in the group taking insulin alone (7.1%, IQR 6.2-8.0; P ϭ 0.0066), and significantly more patients in the sulfonylurea Ϯ insulin group had an HbA 1c Ͻ7% (47 vs. 35%, respectively; P ϭ 0.011). Weight gain was similar in the intensive therapy groups, but major hypoglycemia occurred less frequently over all in the sulfonylurea (Ϯ insulin) group compared with the insulin alone group (1.6 vs. 3.2% per annum, respectively; P ϭ 0.017).CONCLUSIONS -Early addition of insulin when maximal sulfonylurea therapy is inadequate can significantly improve glycemic control without promoting increased hypoglycemia or weight gain.
Diabetes Care 25:330 -336, 2002T he U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) showed that intensive control of blood glucose with sulfonylurea or insulin, and with metformin in overweight patients, substantially reduced the risk of diabetic complications (1). The intensive glucose control policy used in the first 15 UKPDS centers (Glucose Study 1) required patients to remain on their allocated monotherapy, unless fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels increased to Ͼ15 mmol/l or hyperglycemic symptoms ensued, to evaluate specific advantages or disadvantages of individual therapies. With the realization that progressive hyperglycemia was occurring in all randomized groups (2-4) and that additional therapy might be desirable at the stage of sulfonylurea inadequacy (5) rather than sulfonylurea failure, a modified protocol (Glucose Study 2) was introduced in the last eight UKPDS centers (6). This protocol, the aim of which was to determine whether a more aggressive glucose control policy could minimize hyperglycemic progression, differed only in that insulin therapy was added immediately in patients allocated to sulfonylurea therapy if maximal doses did not maintain FPG levels Ͻ108 mg/dl (6.0 mmol/l).A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (7) has shown that combining sulfonylurea and insulin therapy can improve metabolic control with significantly smal...