Effects of mixing glargine and short-acting insulin analogs on glucose control.

I ntensive insulin management improves glycemic control and lowers the risks of long-term microvascular complications (1). Several new insulin analogs (2) are in use to improve glycemic control in type 1 diabetes. Glargine in particular is a “basal insulin” (3) and found to be relatively peakless. Glargine is thought to provide glucose profiles similar to insulin pumps (4). Although some clinical studies suggest that glargine lasts 24 h in children with diabetes (5), to date there have been no formal pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data to make that claim in the pediatric population. In fact, clinical observations in pediatric type 1 diabetes suggest that glargine action may be 24 h. This would entail twice-daily glargine dosing and short-acting insulin analogs (SAIs), such as lispro and aspart, given separately three to four times per day, resulting in improved glycemic control but compromising compliance and increasing complexity of management (6). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that mixing glargine with SAIs and dividing the dose of glargine into twiceversus once-daily dosing would not adversely affect glycemic control as assessed by a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS).