Endocrine Abstracts

Recently, many cases with hypoglycemia who take oral hypoglycemic agents and/or insulin therapy are carried to the emergency room in our hospital due to hypoglycemia. Pharmacotherapy for patients with diabetes mellitus occasionally can causes severe hypoglycemic attack. In this study, we investigated 69 type 2 diabetics on clinical features (26 outpatients of our hospital, 43 outpatients of other clinics) among 100 patients who were carried to the emergency room due to hypoglycemia from October, 2009 to September, 2011 to reveal the cause of hypoglycemia that required the treatment in medical facilities. Age (79.2±8.8 vs 70.4±12.6 years old) and the prevalence of pharmacotherapy with sulfonyl urea (SU, 65.8 vs 26.7%) are significantly higher in cases of HbA1c<7.0% than in cases of HbA1c≧7.0%. Patients needed to be hospitalized have significantly higher than those needed not to be hospitalized in age (78.1±9.8 vs 71.9±12.8 years old), and in the prevalence of pharmacotherapy with SU (64.7 vs 31.4%). Outpatients of other clinics have significantly lower HbA1c value than outpatients of our hospital (6.64±0.93 vs 7.55±1.33%), and rate of the prevalence of pharmacotherapy with SU significantly higher than outpatients of our hospital(69.8 vs 11.5%).

Pharmacotherapy with SU is widely practiced for the treatment with type 2 diabetics. However, in elder patients strict glycemic control by SU may increase the risk of hypoglycemia. It is suggested that we should pay attention to the risk of hypoglycemia due to pharmacotherapy, especially with SU, and effort to direct the patient’s attention to the risk of hypoglycemia and guide how to take measure to hypoglycemia.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.