African Journal of Internal Medicine

African Journal of Internal Medicine ISSN: 2326-7283 Vol. 3 (2), pp. 067-070, April, 2014. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

The effect of insulin therapy and plasma glucose levels on corrected QT intervals in patients with type 2 diabetes

Terri  Moon*, Wokre Burec, Niuro Aburie, Brisae Barro and Ishi Isong

Department of Internal Medicine, Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital, Koshigaya, Japan.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: +81-48-453-2146. Fax: +81-58-982-0953.

Accepted 24 January, 2014

Abstract

This study aims is to investigate the effect of medium-term insulin therapy (3 months) and plasma glucose levels on corrected QT intervals (QTc) in patients with type 2 diabetes. The subjects were 17 patients with type 2 diabetes who had poor glycemic control and were changed to insulin therapy from sulfonylurea or diet therapy alone. QTc, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), serum potassium and body weight were measured at baseline and after 3 months of insulin therapy. A significant increase of QTc (0.406 ± 0.027 to 0.421 ± 0.025 s, P =0.0025) and a significant decrease in HbA1c (10.9 ± 1.9 to 7.9 ± 1.7%, P =0.0002) were found after 3 months of insulin therapy. QTc showed no correlation with FPG, HbA1c or body weight before insulin therapy and the change in QTc was not correlated with the change in FPG, HbA1c or body weight from before to after insulin therapy. In this study, insulin therapy for 3 months caused a significant increase of QTc in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, given the small size of the trial, further studies with larger number of patients are needed.