Blood glucose concentrations and glycosuria during and after one year of acarbose therapy

Type-I and type-II diabetics receiving antidiabetic therapy, comprising of diet, or diet plus sulphonylureas or insulin, were additionally treated with acarbose for a period of 12 months in an open, multi-centre study carried out under general practice conditions. This was followed by an observation period without acarbose. After 3 months on acarbose, the mean fasting and post-prandial blood glucose concentrations were 30 and 40 mg/dl, respectively, lower, thereafter remaining virtually unchanged up to the end of treatment. After withdrawal of acarbose the mean blood glucose values rose to their pretreatment levels, except in patients with proven poor acarbose compliance. All three treatment subgroups mentioned above showed the same pattern of glucose reduction. The mean blood glucose values of patients previously treated by dietary measures alone fell under acarbose therapy below the upper limit of normal. The percentage of glycosuric patients in the above subgroups was halved under acarbose and rose after discontinuation of acarbose approximately to the initial numbers. The number of patients with blood-glucose control classified as "good" rose fourfold during the acarbose treatment. In the course of the trial acarbose had to be discontinued due to intestinal side effects in only 5% of the patients. Frequency and intensity of the intestinal symptoms related to increased bacterial carbohydrate cleavage (flatulence, meteorism, occasionally diarrhoea), decreased during treatment. Other subjective complaints or side effects were neither reported nor could be detected objectively.