Caiyun Guo, Yang Lu

Department of Endocrinology, YuYao People’s Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Caiyun Guo, Department of Endocrinology, YuYao People’s Hospital, 800 Chengdong Road, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, 315400, People’s Republic of China, Email guocaiyun9112@163.com

Background: A short-term insulin intensive therapy is an important method used in clinical practice to control blood glucose, and a scientific post-treatment plan is key to long-term blood glucose stability control. This study aimed to investigate efficacy and safety of early conversion of intensive insulin therapy to IDegLira in T2DM patients.
Methods: This study was a prospective study, involving 80 T2DM patients finally. Patients were firstly treated with insulin for intensified therapy (Pre-IDegLira group), then switched to insulin degludec and liraglutide (IDegLira) for 3 months (IDegLira-3 months group). Data including HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, fasting C-peptide, weight, insulin dosage, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were analyzed. Correlations between fasting blood glucose and other parameters were evaluated with Pearson correlation analysis.
Results: IDegLira early conversion significantly reduced fasting blood glucose (p< 0.001), weight (p=0.015), and insulin dosage (p=0.001) of T2DM patients compared to those of Pre-IDegLira group. HbA1c level was remarkably lower in T2DM patients underwent IDegLira early conversion compared to that in Pre-IDegLira group (p< 0.001), with HbA1c < 7% proportion of 73.75% (59/80). IDegLira early conversion significantly downregulated levels of TC (p< 0.001), TG (p< 0.001), LDL-C (p< 0.001), and upregulated HDL-C level (p=0.017) of T2DM patients, compared to those in Pre-IDegLira group. IDegLira early conversion markedly reduced ALT (p< 0.001) and AST (p=0.002) levels of T2DM patients compared to those in Pre-IDegLira group. IDegLira early conversion demonstrated a positive correlation between fasting blood glucose and HbA1c (r=0.531, p< 0.001) or TG level (r=0.336, p=0.002) in T2DM patients.
Conclusion: Early conversion of intensive insulin therapy to IDegLira effectively reduced fasting blood glucose and HbA1c in T2DM patients with higher safety.

Keywords: insulin intensive therapy, IDegLira, T2DM, early conversion, safety