Clinical experience with insulin detemir, biphasic insulin aspart and insulin aspart in people with type 2 diabetes: Results from the Trivandrum cohort of the A 1 chieve study

Background: The A1chieve, a multicentric (28 countries), 24-week, non-interventional study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of insulin detemir, biphasic insulin aspart and insulin aspart in people with T2DM (n = 66,726) in routine clinical care across four continents. Materials and Methods: Data was collected at baseline, at 12 weeks and at 24 weeks. This short communication presents the results for patients enrolled from Trivandrum, India. Results: A total of 528 patients were enrolled in the study. Four different insulin analogue regimens were used in the study. Patients had started on or were switched to biphasic insulin aspart (n = 392), insulin detemir (n = 65), insulin aspart (n = 70) and other insulin combinations (n = 1). At baseline glycaemic control was poor for both insulin naïve (mean HbA 1 c: 9.9%) and insulin user (mean HbA 1 c: 8.1%) groups. After 24 weeks of treatment, both the study groups showed improvement in HbA 1 c (insulin naïve: −2.4%, insulin users: −1.0%). SADRs including major hypoglycaemic events or episodes did not occur in any of the study patients. Conclusion: Starting or switching to insulin analogues was associated with improvement in glycaemic control with a low rate of hypoglycaemia

Telemedicine for diabetes care: An Indian perspective - feasibility and efficacy

Diabetes is a chronic and costly disease. In India, the usual practice among patients is to visit the doctor once in every 2–3 months to get advice on changes in the dosages of medications. The Diabetes Tele Management System (DTMS®) is a telemedicine based follow-up program originally introduced at Jothydev's Diabetes Research Centre at Trivandrum South India in 1998. It is a chronic disease management system which enables patient to interact lively with a professionally trained multidisciplinary team comprising of diabetes educators, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, psychologists, physicians, etc., in modifying the dosages of medications, diet, and physical activity either through telephone/email/secure website. The uniquely designed software and the trained multidisciplinary team overcomes the globally recognized major barriers to diabetes management namely fear of hypoglycemia, polypharmacy, discontinuation of stains, and antihypertensives or wrong injection techniques. DTMS is designed to provide individualized therapy advices on glycosylated hemoglobin, blood pressure, and low density lipoprotein customized to multiple patient characteristics which help attain goals of therapy. The system has been tested on various platforms over a decade and was shown to be a patient friendly approach with successful outcomes due to a live "round-the-clock" interactive communication in contrast to text or recorded messages. The major challenge to the widespread use of DTMS® is seeking a source of funding this unique telemedicine program

Sitagliptin 100 mg vs glimepiride 1–3 mg as an add-on to insulin and metformin in type 2 diabetes (SWIM)

Objective: To compare the effect of sitagliptin (100 mg) vs glimepiride (1–3 mg) as add-on therapy in Indian type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients on treatment with insulin and metformin (SWIM study). Research design and methods: This 24-week, controlled, open-label study randomized T2DM patients (n = 440) receiving a stable dose of metformin and insulin combination therapy to sitagliptin (100 mg) or glimepiride (1–3 mg) as add-on therapy. Baseline HbA1c was ≥7.3% and ≤8.5%. After a 6-week titration period for glimepiride (dose titrated every 2 weeks by 1 mg up to a maximum of 3 mg daily), patients were continued for 18 weeks on their respective tolerable doses of glimepiride (ranging from 1 mg to 3 mg) or sitagliptin (100 mg) along with metformin and insulin. Results: Greater reductions in HbA1c and TDD of insulin were achieved with sitagliptin compared to glimepiride. HbA1c targets and reductions in TDD were achieved by more patients on sitagliptin than on glimepiride. Reductions in both body weight and BMI were also noted among patients on sitagliptin when compared to those on glimepiride, and more hypoglycemic events occurred with glimepiride treatment than with sitagliptin. Conclusions: Sitagliptin (100 mg), when compared to glimepiride (1–3 mg), bestowed beneficial effects to T2DM patients in terms of achieving greater glycemic control and also brought significant reductions in total daily dose of insulin required, bodyweight, BMI and hypoglycemic events. Overall, the results suggest that sitagliptin (100 mg) is a superior agent over glimepiride (1–3 mg) as an add-on to insulin–metformin therapy among Asian Indians with T2DM

Glucose monitoring technologies - complementary or competitive? Role of continuous glucose monitoring versus flash glucose monitoring versus self-monitoring of blood glucose

We have numerous technologies that can help keep a close watch on an individual's glycaemic status and thereby assist in developing successful diabetes management strategies. For more than five decades, self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) has remained as the gold standard tool to manage glycaemic status and has gained huge acceptance. Rigorous research further led to the development of more and more advanced technologies such as continuous glucose monitoring and flash glucose monitoring. These novel technologies are more promising in terms of revealing the complete glycaemic picture and even more user-friendly than the already established blood glucosemetres. However, they are yet to achieve remarkable accuracy and performance. There will also be a subgroup of patients who will be using these technologies only occasionally and thus will definitely require SMBG at other times. Again, with regard to the retrospective ones, glucose data can be obtained only once they are downloaded to the system and hence, real-time values will still have to be procured with the help of an SMBG. In future when the accuracy and performance of these newer technologies become equal to that of glucometres, the glucometres might vanish. Until then, all these technologies will definitely go hand-in-hand and supplement each other than competing each other. All the related literature were retrieved from various databases including 'PubMed' and 'Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews' using specific search terms that were relevant to the topics discussed this manuscript

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors in combination with other glucose-lowering agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Involvement of multiple physiological pathways and complex pathogenesis is responsible for the onset and progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Since it is difficult to manage multiple pathophysiological defects by monotherapy, a combination therapy with two or more oral antidiabetic agents (OADs) may help achieve euglycemia in T2DM patients. Choice of OADs is difficult with growing armamentarium of antidiabetic therapy. Ideally, drug combination should aim at reversal of known pathogenic abnormalities and demonstrate improvement in the overall metabolic health rather than simply reduce glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. Increased glucose reabsorption, a faulty pathological mechanism, is targeted by a novel class of drugs, namely, the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. Combination of SGLT2 inhibitors and other OADs complement each other due to their unique mechanism of action. In addition, the glucose-lowering effect of SGLT2 inhibitors remains independent of β-cell function and insulin sensitivity which reduces the chances of severe hypoglycemia in patients receiving these agents. Clinical studies from the past favor the use of SGLT2 inhibitors in combination with other agents to achieve better HbA1c levels, weight loss, and blood pressure control. In this review, we have made an attempt to explore the recommended guidelines for combination therapy, its advantages as either combination therapy or fixed-dose combinations therapy, and the role of SGLT2 inhibitors as a choice of drug as a combination with other OADs