Inter-patient Variability in Clinical Efficacy of Metformin in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in West Bengal, India

Background and objective: Metformin is often used as a first-line therapy for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the glycemic response to metformin is variable in patients. Here, we aimed to assess the inter-patient variability in terms of glycemic response to metformin in the state of West Bengal, India. Material and methods: We enrolled newly diagnosed treatment naive 113 patients with T2DM. Patients were subjected to assay of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FBG), postprandial blood glucose (PP) and measurement of body mass index (BMI), waist circumstances (WC) before and after the end of 3 months of immediate release metformin (2000mg/day) therapy. Results: Out of 113 patients, 111 (58 male and 53 female; average age 43.13 years) were provided with 3 months of metformin therapy. 102 individuals responded to metformin, but HbA1c levels of 9 patients did not improve after 3 months of drug therapy. Conclusions: In the present study, metformin lead to improvements in glycemic control in 92% of newly diagnosed T2DM patients but in 8% does not which is much less in this part of India.