A strategy for selection of elderly type 2 diabetic patients for insulin therapy, and a comparison of two insulin preparations

Abstract

Sixty-six patients with secondary failure to oral hypoglycaemic therapy were assessed in hospital, and those whose fasting blood glucose concentration was greater than or equal to 10.0 mmol l-1 were treated with insulin once a day for 6 months. Only 22 patients fulfilled this criterion, and they were randomly allocated to a daily injection of either Humulin-Zn (12 patients) or Neulente insulin (10 patients). The remaining patients were considered to be noncompliant with therapy. At the end of 6 months' insulin therapy a significant (p less than 0.05) improvement occurred in HbA1c from a median (range) of 13.2(9.8-16.4)% and 13.1(10.5-16.2)% to 10.6(8-14.2)% and 11.2(8.7-13.5)% in patients given Humulin-Zn and Neulente, respectively. However, there were 46 episodes of hypoglycaemia reported by patients who received Humulin-Zn, 36 of which occurred between 0300 and 0600 h. Only four episodes were reported by the Neulente-treated group. In addition, six patients treated with Humulin-Zn (but only one patient on Neulente insulin) required the addition of short-acting insulin. The patients not treated with insulin showed a significant (p less than 0.05) improvement in blood glucose control 2 months after in-patient assessment but this improvement was not sustained to 6 months.