Glimepiride (98 patients) vs glibenclemide (87 patients) in treatment of type 2 diabetes

AIM: To observe the clinical effect of glimepiride in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. METHODS: One hundred and eighty five patients with type 2 diabetic were randomly divided into two groups. Glimepiride group of 98 patients (M 52, F 46; age (52± s 8) a) was treated with glimepiride 1～8 mg·d -1 , po , for 10 wk. Glibenclamide group of 87 patients (M 46, F 41; age (52±9) a) was treated with glibenclamide 2.5～15 mg·d -1 , po , for 10 wk. The changes of blood glucose, insulin, C peptide and adverse reaction in two groups were observed. RESULTS: Similar decrease of infasting blood glucose, 2 h postprandial blood glucose and HbA1c was showed in the two groups. There was no difference on the fasting serum insulin and C peptide between the two groups. After 10 wk treatment, both postprandial serum insulin and C peptide were higher than that before the treatment in two groups. But glimepiride group had less effect on increasing 2 h postprandial serum insulin and C peptide level than that of glibenclamide group ( P 0.01)。 There was a lower incidence of hypoglycemia in glimepiride group than that in glibenclamide group (15 % vs 31 %, P 0.05). And glimepiride group didn't increase the weight. CONCLUSION: Glimepiride has a favorable effect in the treatment of type 2 diabetes with few adverse reactions.