Linagliptin for elderly patients with type 2 diabetes.

306 www.thelancet.com Vol 383 January 25, 2014 The conclusion by Anthony Barnett and colleagues that in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes the safety profi le of linagliptin is similar to placebo, is misleading. As shown in table 3, drugrelated adverse events, serious adverse events, hospital admission, and adverse events leading to discontinuation of the drug were higher in the linagliptin group than in the placebo group. Barnett and colleagues suggested that these adverse events were not related to the drug under study. However, in randomised trials, all intervention groups are treated identically except for the experimental treatment. Therefore, all the adverse events should be due to the study treatment, which might be a known or an unknown eff ect of the study treatment. In addition, it is not clear how many patients discontinued the study drug due to adverse eff ects. According to table 3, eight patients discontinued the study drug due to adverse events, Linagliptin for elderly patients with type 2 diabetes