Effect of acarbose on additional insulin therapy in type 2 diabetic patients with late failure of sulphonylurea therapy.

AIM: The present study investigated the effect of acarbose on insulin requirements and glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes receiving exogenous insulin due to secondary failure of maximum dose sulphonylurea therapy. METHODS: A single-centre, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was performed in 48 type 2 diabetic patients with late-term failure following at least 3 years of sulphonylurea therapy requiring additional insulin therapy to determine the impact of acarbose on glycaemic control and insulin requirements. The primary end points were glycaemic response rate (responders being predefined as patients who achieve a decrease in HbA1c to less than 8% or a reduction by at least 15% as compared to the baseline values) and the daily insulin dose at 6 months. Secondary parameters assessed included postprandial changes in blood glucose, serum insulin and C-peptide during the treatment period. RESULTS: There were significantly more responders in the acarbose-treated group compared with the placebo group (20/24 patients vs. 10/19 patients; p < 0.05). The mean daily insulin dose after 24 weeks of treatment was 16.4 +/- 10.1 IU in the acarbose group and 22.4 +/- 12.2 IU in the placebo group (mean +/- s.d.; p < 0.07). Postprandial increases in blood glucose, insulin and C-peptide were consistently lower in the acarbose-treated group than in the placebo group. For example, the mean increase in 2-h postprandial serum insulin remained almost unchanged in the acarbose group at the end of 24 weeks of treatment compared to an increase to 43 +/- 29 microU/ml (mean +/- s.d.) at the end of the study period for the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the addition of acarbose to sulphonylurea/insulin combination therapy can improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetic patients. Acarbose may also reduce insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia.

[Alström syndrome--a rare disease of diabetic association]. / Alström-Syndrom--eine seltene Erkrankung aus dem diabetischen Formenkreis.

BACKGROUND: Alström's disease is a rare hereditary multiple-system illness, whereas a second-messenger defect can be assumed. CASE REPORT: We describe a case-the first in Germany of 15 known cases in the world literature-, who suffers from all clinical features, such as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, retinitis pigmentosa, pancochlear damage of the ears, hypogonadism, obesity and chronic nephropathy, with the exception of acanthosis nigricans. CONCLUSION: Because of the multiplicity of affected organs the diagnosis of Alström's disease is difficult.

Scintigraphic evidence for cardiac sympathetic dysinnervation in long-term IDDM patients with and without ECG-based autonomic neuropathy.

To analyse the presence and extent of global and regional distributions of cardiac sympathetic dysinnervation in long-term insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) without myocardial perfusion abnormalities (99mTc-methoxy isobutyl isonitrile study), 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) scintigraphy was performed in two clinically-comparable groups (20 diabetic patients with and 22 diabetic patients without ECG-based cardiac autonomic neuropathy). For comparison nine control subjects without heart disease were investigated. Only six diabetic patients (27%) without and one diabetic patient (5%) with ECG-based autonomic neuropathy were found to have a uniform homogeneous uptake of 123I-MIBG, in contrast to a uniform homogeneous uptake in all control subjects. The uptake of 123I-MIBG in the posterior myocardium of diabetic patients was smaller than in the anterior, lateral and septal myocardium (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.001). In addition, diabetic patients with cardiac autonomic neuropathy (> or = two of five age-related cardiac reflex tests abnormal) demonstrated a more reduced uptake in the global, lateral and posterior myocardium than diabetic patients without (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, p < 0.001). A correlation between global or regional myocardial 123I-MIBG uptake, however, and duration of diabetes, HbA1c, body mass index or QT interval length was not observed. Our study demonstrates that cardiac sympathetic dysinnervation is common in long-term IDDM even in patients without ECG-based cardiac autonomic neuropathy and that the posterior myocardium is predominantly affected. We conclude that 123I-MIBG scintigraphy is a promising approach to further elucidate the pattern and natural history of myocardial dysinnervation in IDDM.