Open AccessUsage of pioglitazone at Medanta, the Medicity
Author(s) -
Ambrish Mithal,
Parjeet Kaur,
Beena Bansal,
Sunil Kumar Mishra,
Jasjeet Singh Wasir,
Ganesh Jevalikar,
Shama Mahendru
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.456
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 2230-9500
pISSN - 2230-8210
DOI - 10.4103/2230-8210.126588
Subject(s) - pioglitazone , medicine , glycemic , diabetes mellitus , thiazolidinedione , type 2 diabetes , intensive care medicine , endocrinology
Pioglitazone improves glycemic control by acting as an insulin sensitizer and is used in the management of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Pioglitazone has recently been at the center of a controversy with regards to its safety. There is no clear consensus on how, when and in what dose the drug should be used in the management of diabetes. We have summarized our strategy on pioglitazone use in Type 2 diabetes in a large private tertiary care center - Medanta, the Medicity- which may help in generating further thought about positioning of this anti-diabetic molecule. We use pioglitazone as the fourth in the pecking order of oral anti-diabetic agents. We typically use pioglitazone in a dose of 15 mg/day. We avoid using pioglitazone with insulin. We do not use pioglitazone under following situations: In the presence of significant or proven cardiac disease, in patients who are struggling with their weight or need to lose weight, in patients at high risk for osteoporotic fractures, in patients with macular edema, in patients with pre-existing bladder cancer and would discontinue in case hematuria or any other symptom of bladder cancer develops. We continue to use the drug in patients well controlled on it without any evident side-effects or contraindications.