Pharmacological approaches to the management of type 2 diabetes in fasting adults during Ramadan

Abstract

Saud Al SifriEndocrinology Department, Alhada Armed Forces Hospital, Taif, Saudi ArabiaI read with great interest the recent review article by AlMaatouq regarding the pharmacological approaches to the management of type 2 diabetes in fasting adults during Ramadan.1 This article stated that "A recent prospective study of more than 1000 patients with T2DMwho fasted during Ramadan found that the risk of hypoglycemia associated with a vildagliptin-based regimen (vildagliptin 100 mg once daily) was lower than that of a sulfonylurea-based regimen (both with and without metformin)."1 This statement needs to be corrected.Ramadan is the lunar month observed each year in which Muslim adults will fast. This fast includes abstinence from eating, drinking, and smoking from sunrise to sunset. Hypoglycemia during this period represents the greatest health risk for these patients. Recently introduced modulators of the incretin system are the dipeptidylpeptidase-4 inhibitors, which include sitagliptin, vildagliptin, alogliptin, saxagliptin, and linagliptin. These agents are not associated with hypoglycemia.View original paper by AlMaatouq