Influence of glucose control and improvement of insulin resistance on microvascular blood flow and endothelial function in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2.

The study was performed to investigate the effect of improving metabolic control with pioglitazone in comparison to glimepiride on microvascular function in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2.A total of 179 patients were recruited and randomly assigned to one treatment group. Metabolic control (HbA1c), insulin resistance (HOMA index), and microvascular function (laser Doppler fluxmetry) were observed at baseline and after 3 and 6 months.HbA1c improved in both treatment arms (pioglitazone: 7.52 +/- 0.85% to 6.71 +/- 0.89%, p.0001; glimepiride: 7.44 +/- 0.89% to 6.83 +/- 0.85%, p.0001). Insulin-resistance decreased significantly in the pioglitazone group (6.15 +/- 4.05 to 3.85 +/- 1.92, p…