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AIMS: This study aimed to assess the risk of non-fatal cardiovascular events among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who are taking metformin, glimepiride or glyburide. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using the National Health Insurance Research database in Taiwan, this retrospective cohort study identified 1159 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM from 1998 to 2007, 30 years and older and without a history of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Patients with cancer, liver cirrhosis or chronic kidney disease were excluded. On the basis of prescription, patients were grouped into three medication subcohorts: metformin (N = 595), glimepiride (N = 234) or glyburide (N = 330) monotherapy for 100% of the follow-up period without any oral anti-diabetic agents added or changed, by the end of 2009. Incidence and hazard ratios of non-fatal cardiovascular events including coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, stroke and heart failure among these three subcohorts were compared. RESULTS: The overall incidence of non-fatal cardiovascular events was the highest for patients taking glyburide (169.1 per 1000 person-years), followed by for those taking glimepiride and metformin (95.2 and 49.1 per 1000 person-years, respectively). Compared with the adjusted hazard ratio for patients taking glyburide, the adjusted hazard ratio for those taking glimepiride was 0.52 (95% CI 0.40-0.69) and for those taking metformin was 0.31 (95% CI 0.24-0.40). CONCLUSIONS: T2DM patients taking metformin and glimepiride are at lower risk of non-fatal cardiovascular events than those taking glyburide.
Hung et al. (2013) studied this question.