Retrospective Analysis Finds That Initiation of Insulin Glargine in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes was Associated With a Lower Incidence Rate of Myocardial Infarction as Compared With N...( ORLANDO Fla. Nov. 7 /- A retrospe...),Health

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A retrospective analysis of healthcare claims in more than 20,000 patients with type 2 diabetes from an integrated U.S. national managed care database found that the initiation of insulin therapy with insulin glargine was associated with a lower incidence rate of subsequent myocardial infarction (MI), as compared with NPH insulin. The new findings, presented at the American Heart Association's 2007 Scientific Sessions, are some of the first to evaluate the rate of MI in a database of patients treated with insulin glargine -- a commonly used drug in patients with type 2 diabetes for the control of hyperglycemia.

The unadjusted incidence rate of MI events was 11.5/per thousand patient- years in the group of patients treated with glargine and 17.6/per thousand patient-years in the group treated with NPH during an observation period up to 5 years with a mean about 2 years. The unadjusted hazard ratio for MI events was 0.640 (95% CI: 0.539 - 0.761). After adjusting for multiple patient factors, the risk of MI remained lower in the group of patients who initiated treatment with insulin glargine (HR: 0.73; 0.60 - 0.89) as compared with NPH insulin.

"While insulin glargine has become widely used for the control of hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes since its introduction, the post- market data on its long-term cardiovascular safety has been lacking until now," said Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and one of the lead authors of the study. "Although these findings need to be confirmed in future, prospective studies, they suggest that the use of insulin glargine is associated with lower risk of MI than NPH."

Further Studies Planned

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