The general lipid profile of patients with type 2 diabetes is better with a metformin treatment than with glipizide, according to a Chinese study.

"The understanding of the current findings should be combined with those of our previous study that had revealed a beneficial effect of metformin on major cardiovascular disorders in high-risk patients with respect to glipizide," said e-mailDoctor Yifei Zhang, of the Jiao-Tong University Faculty, in Shanghai.

In an effort to understand why metformin delivers better results than the glipizide, Dr. Zhang and his colleagues evaluated different metabolites of lipids in blood samples of 44 patients (23 treated with metformin and 21 with glipizide) who participated in the study spred-Dimcad.

Among the 118 lipid molecular species identified, two varied significantly among the groups after one year of treatment, while 11 varied after two years, and 12 after three years of treatment.

In general, triacilglyceroles with a relatively high number of carbon atoms showed a clearly high trend in the metformin group, while changes in triacilglyceroles with different double bonds were minimal.

With a modeling strategy known as Smart analysis, the equipment detected that metformin significantly modified the metabolism of blood lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes with coronary heart disease, while glipizide only influenced the metabolism of lipids.

After analyzing all lipid species with significant variations in the 44 patients, three metabolites (phosphatidylcholine (O-34: 1), sphingomyeline (D18: 0-24: 1) and sphingomyeline (D18: 1-20: 1) were associatedWith cardiovascular disorders combined in the long term, according to a report published by Diabetes Care Online on July 10.

"With traditional risk factors, we could not explain their differences in cardiovascular results," Zhang said.

"Therefore, the results of lipidomic analyzes provide new evidence of the mechanisms for the progress of the disease and the effects of the different drugs with drugs in cardiovascular results. In this sense, we would choose to use metformin in patients with patients with patients with patients with patients with patients with patients with patients with patients with patients withSpecial risk type 2 diabetes, "he added.

Not all patients need a detailed lipidomic profile.

"Even so, there are two reasons why we prefer an analysis in our patients with type 2 diabetes: to know deeply and reveal the mechanism of action of the antidiabetic drug in cardiovascular results; (and) to comprise the metabolic characteristics ofPatients with high cardiovascular risk, such as those with diabetes, metabolic syndrome and dyslipemia, "said Dr. Zhang.

According to the optional, this type of study could be a useful platform for clinical researchers to reveal the efficacy and safety of drug therapies, to find new therapeutic objectives and to discover the underlying mechanisms of disease progress, as well as to helpInternists to perform a better health practice towards their patients.

Dr. Oscar Giese Laverdy Neto, from the Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, studied the metabolism of lipids in type 2 diabetes.

"Cardiovascular disease explains more than 60 percent of deaths in people with type 2 diabetes. The study provides interesting results that demonstrate another positive effect of metformin, which corroborates this drug as the first choice for the treatment of diabetesType 2 ".Source: Link