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A study from Llandough Hospital, Cardiff, presented during the World Diabetes Congress in Melbourne, suggests that switching to insulin degludec reduces the number of hypoglycaemic episodes and lowers HbA1c in patients experiencing problems with their current treatment.

Previous regulatory clinical studies assessing insulin degludec did not include patients experiencing hypoglycaemia with their current basal insulin.

Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of 19 patients with type 1 and six with type 2 diabetes who were reviewed between 10 and 18 weeks after switching to insulin degludec from insulin glargine or detemir. Of the 25 patients, 24 switched due to recurrent hypoglycaemia and one because of the large injection volume.

Mean HbA1c decreased by 0.3 and 0.8 percentage points (from 9.4 and 9.6 per cent respectively at baseline) in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes respectively after switching to insulin degludec.

Hypoglycaemic events (patient-reported or self- measured blood glucose <4 mmol/L) decreased by 69 per cent (from a mean of 3.9 a week) and 85 per cent (from 2.0 a week) respectively. Sixty per cent of patients experienced fewer episodes of hypoglycaemia after the first four weeks of treatment.