[Effect of insulin therapy on lipoprotein concentrations in secondary sulfonylurea treatment failures in menopause]

The insulinization of sulfonylurea secondary failures in the menopause without essential overweight (n = 25) on an average already in the first week of treatment led to an increase of the HDL-cholesterol and to clear reductions of the triglycerides and of the atherosclerosis risk index total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol. When a higher dose of insulin was given and in a comparable condition of glycaemia these changes continued to increase up to the 6th week of treatment, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol decreased. Sulfonylurea secondary failures in the menopause which were euglycaemic after a 6-week insulin therapy (n = 20) revealed at this date a higher HDL-cholesterol, lower triglycerides and a more favourable quotient total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol as well as a shorter duration of diabetes than the female patients with more unfavourable condition of glycaemia (n = 20). Already before the induction of the insulin therapy the later on euglycaemic female patients showed an on an average lower triglyceride level than the comparative group. The reductions of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides after insulinization did not significantly differ between the two groups. On the other hand, the decrease of the quotient total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol was significantly more distinctly characterized in the female diabetics who had become euglycaemic after a 6-week insulin therapy on account of an increase of HDL-cholesterol which is to be registered only in these patients. In sulfonylurea secondary failures in the menopause without essential overweight insulinization leads to an improvement of the lipoprotein profile, particularly when a euglycaemic metabolic conduction is achieved.