Table 1.

Long-term glycaemic and lipidaemic effects of combined sulfonylurea and thiazolidinedione therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes

Study	Comparator groups	N	Duration	Glycaemic effects	Lipidaemic effects
Comaschi et al., 2006 (23)	Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea		6 months	Significant and comparable improvementsin HbA1c at 12 months (p = 0.0001)	Significant improvement across alllipid parameters
	Pioglitazone + metformin
Torre et al., 2006 (79)	Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea	77	6 months	Not reported	Significant decrease in triglyceridelevels in the pioglitazone + sulfonylurea group only Significant improvement inHDL-cholesterol levels
	Pioglitazone + metformin	103
Derosa et al., 2004 (85)	Glimepiride + pioglitazone	45	1 year	Significant and comparable improvementsin HbA1c at 12 months (p < 0.01)	Significant improvement across alllipid parameters
	Glimepiride + rosiglitazone	44		Worsening of multiple lipid parameters
Ginis et al., 2006 (24)	Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea	791	1 year	Significant improvement in both groupsfrom baseline Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea: 6.65% Pioglitazone + metformin: 6.61%	Triglycerides decreased significantlyin both groups (p < 0.0001) Overall reduction of 12.8% for bothgroups combined for total cholesterol Significant improvement in HDL- andLDL-cholesterol levels in both groups
	Pioglitazone + metformin	705
PROactive Charbonnel and Scheen,2006 (22); Spanheimeret al., 2006 (78)	Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea	508	3 years	Significantly greater improvements overtime in HbA1c vs. placebo (p < 0.001at final visit)	Significant improvement in triglycerideand HDL-cholesterol levels vs. placebo
	Placebo + sulfonylurea	493
Quartet Charbonnel et al., 2005 (21)	Pioglitazone + sulfonylurea	319	2 years	HbA1c reduced by 1.03%	Significant reduction in triglyceridesand greater increase inHDL-cholesterol (p ≤ 0.001) vs.metformin + sulfonylurea
	Metformin + sulfonylurea	320		HbA1c reduced by 1.16%