Impact of Metformin on Glucose Metabolism in Nondiabetic, Obese African Americans
A placebo-controlled, 24-month randomized study
- Dara Schuster, MD,
- Trudy Gaillard, RN,
- Scott Rhinesmith, MD,
- Diane Habash, PHD and
- Kuame Osei, MD
- From the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Columbus, Ohio
- Address correspondence to Dara Schuster, MD, 491 McCampbell Hall, 1581 Dodd Dr., Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: schuster.26{at}osu.edu
Pharmacological therapy using antidiabetic drugs can delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (1–3). These drugs lower blood glucose, but each drug class impacts glucose dysregulation by a different mechanism (4). It is unclear whether simply lowering mean blood glucose can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes or whether it is the drug effect on particular targets of glucose dysregulation or other unknown drug effects that allow for the decreased incidence of type 2 diabetes in IGT.
Metformin decreases the incidence of type 2 diabetes in IGT (3). But whether metformin treatment earlier in the disease process might further delay progression …
