Response to Comment on: Pantalone et al. The Risk of Overall Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Receiving Glipizide, Glyburide, or Glimepiride Monotherapy: A Retrospective Analysis. Diabetes Care 2010;33:1224–1229

We kindly thank Dr. Khalangot for his comments (1). The literature contains conflicting results regarding whether an increased overall mortality (or cardiovascular mortality) risk accompanies the various sulfonylureas (2–5). The reason for this discrepancy is likely multifactorial as these reports differ in terms of their design and study populations, as well as their choice of variables for which adjustments were made, many of which can result in considerable confounding if not properly adjusted. Failure to adjust for variables such as socio-economic status, smoking status, as well as other medications (cholesterol lowering, antiplatelet, and antihypertensive) and comorbidities can result in …