Endocrine Abstracts

In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dysfunction of β-cellsstarts years before the diagnosis of T2DM and rapidly worsens after overt hyperglycemia. Use of short-term intensive insulin therapy (STIIT) at the time of diagnosis of overt hyperglycemia has shown clinical recovery of β-cells for up to 2 years. A systematic literature review of studies looking for the effect of STIIT, used within two years of diagnosis of T2DM, on the duration from relapse of hyperglycemiato eventual insulin dependence is presented in this abstract. The key phrases ‘type 2 diabetes mellitus’, ‘short-term insulin therapy’, ‘β-cellfailure’, and ‘permanent insulin dependence’ were used to search English literature. For simplicity the duration of diabetes in these studies was divided into three periods: Period 1. Diagnosis of T2DM to end of STIIT which includes total weeks of STIIT, Period 2. End of STIIT until relapse of hyperglycemia i.e. total glycemic remission period, and Period 3. Relapse of hyperglycemia to permanent dependence on insulin therapy. Studies were excluded if all of their participants had diagnosis of T2DM for more than 2 years at the time of inclusion, i.e., if period 1 was more than 2 years. Six clinical trials involving STIIT were identified (Period 2). No studies that examined the clinical course of T2DM in their patients beyond the relapse of hyperglycemia (Period 3) were identified. This literature review identified a lack of data about this important clinical question- do ‘recovered’ β-cells from STIIT exhibit a better response to non-insulin therapies after the end of period 2 and, hence, delay the secondary β-cell failure in period 3?There is a need to conduct studies with longer follow up to characterize the differences in the disease course between patients treated with STIIT and patients treated with non-insulin therapies. This can help us understand the scope of STIIT beyond the initial functional remission of β-cells.