Glipizide in the treatment of maturity-onset diabetes: a multi-centre, out-patient study

A multi-centre clinical assessment was carried out in 592 diabetic patients to study the efficacy and tolerance of glipizide under normal out-patient conditions. Of the total group, 347 patients were maturity-onset diabetics who had received no previous treatment or only dietary control. The other 245 patients had previously received treatment with other hypoglycaemic agents, including insulin in 23 cases. Mean initial dosage was 7.5 mg glipizide per day and this increased over the 3-month period of the study to 10.1 mg in the total group (9.3 mg in new patients). Mean post-prandial blood glucose levels and glycosuria fell rapidly during the first week and then continued to decrease slowly. Changes in mean body weight were somewhat erratic during the trial and at 12 weeks there was an apparent mean increase of 1 kg. After allowing for dropouts, analysis of the results showed that 96.7% of the new patient group and 90.5% of the total group were satisfactorily controlled and maintained on glipizide. Patient tolerance was good, and only 28 (4.7%) patients complained of side-effects, almost half of which related to mild, transient hypoglycaemia.