Long-Term Benefit of Tight Glucose Control

In the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who were randomized to receive intensive glucose-reduction therapy had a lower risk for microvascular complications than did those randomized to conventional dietary therapy (JW Oct 2 1998). The investigators now report the results of a planned 10-year postintervention follow-up of the survivor cohort.

During the intervention phase of the trial, the target fasting plasma glucose level in the intensive-therapy groups (1 assigned to sulfonylurea or insulin and 1 assigned to metformin) was <108 mg/dL. At the end of the intervention phase, mean glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) was 7.0% in the combined intensive-therapy groups and 7.9% in the st…