Gender-differential effects on blood glucose levels between acarbose and metformin in Chinese patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a sub-analysis of the MARCH trial
Abstract
Using the data from the trial of Metformin and AcaRbose in Chinese as the initial Hypoglycemic treatment (MARCH), this study was performed to compare the differential effects of acarbose and metformin on glucose metabolism after stratification by gender. Six hundred and forty patients who had finished the whole 48-week follow-up were included. The reduction of haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was comparable between acarbose- and metformin-treated patients among either females or males, and it was also similar between males and females treated with either acarbose or metformin for 24 and 48 weeks. The dropping of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in acarbose-treated females was significantly less than that in metformin-treated females at both 24 and 48 weeks. Furthermore, the decrease of 2-hour postprandial glucose (2hPPG) in acarbose-treated males was significantly greater than that in metformin-treated males at both 24 and 48 weeks. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that drug selection was an independent factor affecting the decrease of FPG in female patients while it independently influenced 2hPPG in males at week 24 and 48. The reductions of FPG and 2hPPG at week 24 and 48 were also significantly different between metformin-treated females and metformin-treated males although gender was not an independent regulating factor. Our study indicates that there might be gender-differential effects on FPG and 2hPPG reduction when the comparisons are made between acarbose and metformin…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.