Effect of sitagliptin on blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who are treatment naive or poorly responsive to existing antidiabetic drugs: the JAMP study

BACKGROUND: To investigate the ameliorating effect of sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor, on blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were previously untreated with or who have a poor responsive to existing antidiabetic drugs. METHODS: Sitagliptin (50 mg/day) was added on to the pre-existing therapy for type 2 diabetes and changes in the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level after 3 months of treatment were compared with the baseline and performed exploratory analysis. RESULTS: HbA1c levels were significantly decreased after 1 month of treatment compared to baseline, with a mean change in HbA1c level from baseline of −0.73% (range, −0.80 to −0.67) in the entire study population at 3 months. Patients who received a medium dose of glimepiride showed the least improvement in HbA1c levels. The percentage of patients who achieved an HbA1c level of <7.0% significantly increased after 1 month of treatment, reaching 53.1% at 3 months. The percentage of patients who achieved a fasting blood glucose level of <130 mg/dL significantly increased after 1 month of treatment, reaching 50.9% at 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Sitagliptin improved the HbA1c level and rate of achieving the target control levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were previously untreated with, or poorly responsive to, existing antidiabetic drugs. Thus, sitagliptin is expected to be useful in this patient group. However, the additional administration of sitagliptin in patients treated with medium-dose glimepiride only slightly improved blood glucose control when corrected for baseline HbA1c level. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12902-016-0149-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.