Comparing the incidence of hypoglycemia episodes in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease treated with insulin or glibenclamide

Abstract

Introduction. Hypoglycemia is one of the side effects of glibenclamide, which is administered orally in people with diabetes. Hypoglycemia may occur easily due to the reduced metabolism of this drug in patients with chronic kidney disease. The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of hypoglycemia in patients with chronic kidney disease who were treated with glibenclamide or insulin. Material and methods. In this study, 87 patients with type 2 diabetes and in stage 3–4 of chronic kidney disease (CKD) were examined. The patients were divided into two groups of glibenclamide (N = 44) and insulin (N = 43) based on the type of blood glucose-lowering therapy. Next, demographic data, serum creatinine level, number of hypoglycemic episodes over the last year and the amount of consumed drugs were recorded in the checklist. Finally, the data analysis was performed using the SPSS Software. Results. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), weight, duration of diabetes and blood glucose control. In addition, it was indicated that 38% of patients in the glibenclamide group and 32% of patients in the insulin group had at least one hypoglycemic episode. Also, in those two groups, there was no significant correlation between doses of the drug and the number of hypoglycemic episodes. Conclusions. This study showed that there was no significant difference between the patients with chronic kidney disease who were treated with insulin and those patients who were treated with glibenclamide in terms of number of symptomatic hypoglycemic episodes.