Metformin linked to increased risk of acute dialysis in T2DM

(HealthDay)—For patients with type 2 diabetes, metformin is associated with about a 50 percent increase in the risk of acute dialysis compared to sulfonylureas, according to a study published online Aug. 18 in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

Nicholas Carlson, M.D., from Copenhagen University in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a retrospective nationwide cohort study involving 168,443 drug-naive patients with type 2 diabetes aged 50 years and older. Participants initiated treatment with metformin or sulfonylurea between 2000 and 2012 (70.7 percent initiated treatment with metformin).

The researchers found that the one-year risk for acute dialysis was 92.4 per 100,000 for sulfonylurea and 142.7 per 100,000 for metformin. The one-year risk of acute dialysis associated with metformin was increased by 50.3 per 100,000 (risk ratio, 1.53; number needed to harm, 1,988).

"In a retrospective nationwide cohort study on the risk of acute dialysis associated with initiation of metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes, treatment with metformin was associated with a 50 percent increase in risk of acute dialysis compared with sulfonylurea," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.