Comparison of two intensified conventional insulin regimens with three and four daily injections

When choosing an intensified conventional insulin therapy, no specific differentiation is made between the three-injection regimen (regular insulin at breakfast and lunch, and regular+intermediate-acting insulin at dinner) and the four-injection regimen (regular insulin at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and intermediate-acting insulin at bedtime). No published studies have evaluated to our knowledge the differences between these two regimens. In 1991, we proposed to 30 stable type 1 diabetic patients without residual insulin secretion a change from three to four daily injections: 7 refused, 4 were later excluded for intercurrent events; 19 followed the four daily injection regimen for 2 years. In these non randomized 19 patients, the Student's test for paired data was used to compare with a self-controlled study the 1989-90 three-daily injection period with the 1991-92 four-daily-injection period in order to evaluate any differences in daytime blood glucose values (bi-monthly out-patient measurements taken at 8 am, 10 am, 3 pm and 5 pm), nocturnal blood glucose levels at 3 am (bi-monthly patient self-monitoring by means of a blood glucose meter, for a total of 188 vs 188 measurements), HbA1c (a total of 203 vs 207 bi-monthly out-patient measurements), the number of nocturnal hypoglycaemic attacks, body weight and mean insulin requirement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)