Preferable effects of pemafibrate on liver function and fibrosis in subjects with type 2 diabetes complicated with liver damage.

BACKGROUND: Pemafibrate has been reported to ameliorate lipid profiles and liver dysfunction. However, which patients derive benefit from the hepatoprotective effects of pemafibrate is unclear. METHODS: We conducted a sub-analysis of the PARM-T2D study where subjects with type 2 diabetes complicated by hypertriglyceridemia were prospectively treated with pemafibrate or conventional therapies for 52 weeks. From the original cohort, subjects who had metabolic-associated fatty liver disease without changing their treatment regimens for comorbidities were analyzed. Eligible subjects (n = 293) (average age 61.2 ± 11.7 years, 37.5% female) treated with pemafibrate (pemafibrate, n = 152) or controls who did not change their treatment regimens (controls, n = 141) were divided into three groups based on their alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels: ALT ≤ upper normal limit (UNL) (pemafibrate, n = 65; controls, n = 50), UNL < ALT ≤ 2×UNL (pemafibrate, n = 58; controls, n = 54), and 2×UNL < ALT (pemafibrate, n = 29; controls, n = 27). RESULTS: Pemafibrate treatment significantly ameliorated ALT levels (from 29 to 22 U/L, p < 0.001 by Wilcoxon's signed-rank test) in the total cohort and subjects with high ALT levels (2×ULN < ALT), and improved liver fibrosis as assessed by the Fibrosis-4 index (mean change - 0.05 (95% confidence interval: -0.22 to - 0.02), p < 0.05 versus baseline by the Mann-Whitney U-test and p < 0.05 versus the ALT ≤ UNL group by the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's post-hoc analysis). CONCLUSIONS: The hepatoprotective effects of pemafibrate were dominant in subjects with type 2 diabetes complicated with liver dysfunction. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network Center Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000037385).

Effects of pemafibrate on lipid metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia: A multi-center prospective observational study, the PARM-T2D study.

AIMS: Pemafibrate, a novel selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor modulator, was shown to ameliorate lipid abnormalities in a phase III clinical trial of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, its efficacy has not been demonstrated in real-world clinical practice in patients with T2DM. METHODS: We performed a multi-center prospective observational study of the use of pemafibrate in patients with T2DM and hypertriglyceridemia versus conventional therapy, with or without a fibrate. The primary outcomes were the changes from baseline in fasting serum triglyceride (TG) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations at week 52. RESULTS: We recruited 650 patients, and data from 504 (252 per group) were analyzed after propensity score matching. In the pemafibrate group, both TG and HDL-C showed significant improvements (p < 0.001), and several indices reflecting TG-rich lipoproteins, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol particle size, and liver enzyme elevations were significantly ameliorated compared with the control group, but there was no difference in glycemic control markers. One of the key secondary endpoints showed that switching from conventional fibrates to pemafibrate improved eGFR but increased uric acid concentration. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with T2DM, pemafibrate has superior effects on lipid profile as well as liver and renal dysfunction to conventional fibrates.

Log-linear relationship between endogenous insulin secretion and glycemic variability in patients with type 2 diabetes on continuous glucose monitoring.

The contribution of endogenous insulin secretion to glycemic variability (GV) may differ between patients with impaired insulin secretion and those with preserved secretion. Our objective was to determine the linearity of the relationship between fasting C-peptide (CPR) as a marker of endogenous insulin secretion and GV in type 2 diabetes (T2DM), regardless of the type of antidiabetic treatment. We conducted a prospective observational study using continuous glucose monitoring obtained from 284 Japanese outpatients with T2DM with various HbA1c values and antidiabetic treatment. We constructed a prediction curve of base-line CPR versus coefficient of variation (CV) and identified the clinical factors associated with CV using multiple regression analysis. Fasting CPR showed a significant negative log-linear relationship with CV (P < 0.0001), and the latter being strikingly high in the low-CPR group. The multiple regression analysis showed that low CPR was an independent predictor of high CV (P < 0.0001). The significant correlations were sustained in both patients with/without insulin treatment. The contribution of endogenous insulin secretion to GV depends on the extent of insulin secretion impairment. Fasting CPR may represent a useful indicator of GV instability in T2DM.

The association between hypoglycemia and glycemic variability in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes: a prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore predictive factors of time below target glucose range (TBR) ≥ 1% among patients' characteristics and glycemic variability (GV) indices using continuous glucose monitoring data in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study on 179 (71 female) Japanese outpatients with type 2 diabetes aged ≥ 65 years. The characteristics of the participants with TBR ≥ 1% were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses of GV indices, comprising coefficient of variation (CV), standard deviation, and mean amplitude of glycemic excursions, were performed to identify the optimal index for the identification of patients with TBR ≥ 1%. RESULTS: In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, none of the clinical characteristics, including HbA1c and C-peptide index, were independent markers for TBR ≥ 1%, while all three GV indices showed significant associations with TBR ≥ 1%. Among the three GV indices, CV showed the best performance based on the area under the curve in the ROC curve analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Among elderly patients with type 2 diabetes, CV reflected TBR ≥ 1% most appropriately among the GV indices examined. Trial registration UMIN-CTR: UMIN000029993. Registered 16 November 2017.

Impaired insulin secretion predicting unstable glycemic variability and time below range in type 2 diabetes patients regardless of glycated hemoglobin or diabetes treatment.

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: To identify the coefficient of variation (CV) threshold for unstable glucose variability (GV) and hypoglycemia, and to characterize a patient population with unstable GV and hypoglycemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was an observational study that enrolled 284 Japanese outpatients with type 2 diabetes who underwent continuous glucose monitoring. The C-peptide index (CPI = [(fasting serum C-peptide) / (plasma glucose)] × 100) was used as a marker of endogenous insulin secretion. The CV threshold between stable and unstable GV was defined as the upper limit of the CV distribution in the subgroup of patients who did not receive insulin nor insulin secretagogues (relatively stable GV subgroup, n = 104). The optimal CV range corresponding to time below target range ≥4% was determined for all patients using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Various characteristics of patients with unstable GV and hypoglycemia were extracted using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The upper limit of the CV in the relatively stable GV subgroup was 40. The optimal CV range corresponding to time below target range ≥4% was also defined as CV ≥40 (area under the curve 0.85) for all patients. The CPI was an independent risk for CV ≥40 (odds ratio 0.17, 95% confidence interval 0.04-0.50, P < 0.01). The optimal cut-off point for CPI to predict a CV cut-off value of 40 was equivalent to 0.81 (area under the curve 0.80). CONCLUSIONS: A CV of 40 discriminates unstable GV and hypoglycemia from stable GV in Japanese outpatients with type 2 diabetes. Impaired insulin secretion might affect the stability of GV.