Inhaled insulin controls diabetes over long term

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 05 Jun 2004 - 10:00 PDT

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People with diabetes might soon be able to throw away their insulin syringes. An inhaled form of insulin provides good long-term control of blood sugar levels, a new study shows, and patients much prefer the treatment to injected insulin.

Previous short-term (12-week) studies demonstrated the efficacy and patient acceptance of inhaled insulin among people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, Dr. Robert A. Gerber from Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton, Connecticut, and colleagues explain in the medical journal Diabetes Care. They then followed 121 participants in the original studies who participated in a 1-year extension study.

Improvements in hemoglobin A1c levels -- a measure of long-term control of blood sugar levels -- were similar in subjects who continued taking inhaled insulin, those who switched from injected to inhaled insulin, patients who continued on injected insulin, and people who switched from inhaled to subcutaneous insulin, the authors report.

Episodes of excessively low blood sugar levels were also similar regardless of insulin treatment, the report indicates.

There had been questions about the effect of inhaled insulin on the lungs, but average changes in pulmonary function were the same with inhaled or injected insulin.

During the 1-year extension, participants taking inhaled insulin reported significantly greater improvements in overall satisfaction, ease of use, and social comfort than did patients on injected insulin, the researchers note.

"Results from the current investigation are the first to suggest that the rapid improvement in patient satisfaction with inhaled insulin is sustained," the authors conclude, "and long-term improvements in glycemic control and patient satisfaction are maintained up to the 1-year follow-up."

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