Effects of insulin analogs as an add-on to metformin on cutaneous microcirculation in type 2 diabetic patients

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Insulin Aspart and Insulin Detemir.

Their aim was to examine the effects of 4weeks of insulin therapy by three randomly assigned insulin analog regimens (Detemir, Aspart, and their combination) on cutaneous blood flow (CBF) and microcirculatory endothelial function as an add-on to metformin in type 2 diabetic patients poorly controlled on oral antidiabetic treatment.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 2 patients were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Fourty-two type 2 diabetic patients with no history of cardiovascular disease in secondary failure to oral antidiabetic agents had CBF measurements before and after acetylcholine (Ach) iontophoretic administration.

CBF measurements were performed at fasting and after a standardized breakfast during the post-prandial period.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and pilot study.

Because people in this Insulin Aspart study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Insulin Aspart study would be practical.

Before randomization (Visit 1, V1) during the tests, participants took only metformin.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Administration, Cutaneous, Biomarkers, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Endothelium, Vascular, France and Hypoglycemic Agents.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Acetylcholine iontophoresis, Cutaneous microcirculation, Endothelial function, Insulin analog treatment, Laser Doppler flowometry and Postprandial cutaneous blood flow.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and pilot study of Insulin Aspart and Insulin Detemir in 2 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Microvascular research), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Insulin Aspart compound page and the Insulin Detemir compound page, all human trials.