Diaz A Shaikh, Jan M Shaikh, Safdar A Shaikh, Ahmed Danyal, Nazid A Shah.
Effect of Metformin on urinary VMA levels in type II diabetic subjects.
Biomedica Jan ;24(2):139-42.

The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of metformin on 24–hours urinary VMA levels in newly diagnosed untreated type 2 diabetic subjects. The study consisted of four weeks for each participant with weekly follow up visits. Samples were collected at 0800-0900 hours after over night fast. Study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, BMSI, JPMC, Karachi. Total duration of study was six months. Fifteen newly diagnosed untreated type 2 diabetics, with fasting plasma glucose levels 126 mg/dl on two occasions and/or postprandial glucose levels 200 mg /d1 were enrolled in the study. Patients with concurrent illness or diabetic complications were excluded. Metformin was started from 500 mg/day and titrated at weekly intervals according to glycaemic control and the subjects tolerance to the drug. A 24 –hour urinary VMA was assessed at day – 0 (before metformin therapy) and day —28 (4 weeks after metformin therapy) by using VMA reagent kit of Biosystems Spain on Spectronic —21 spectrophotometer USA. Metformin caused highly significant (P < 0.001) reduction in mean fasting plasma glucose from 233.33 ± 15.62 mg /dl on day-o to 151.53 ± 6.02 mg/dl on day – 28, and a significant (P < 0.01) decrease in 24 – hour urinary VMA levels from 5.18 ± 0.50 mg / 24 hours on day 0 to 3.32 ± 0.28 mg / 24 hours on day-28. Our results indicate that metformin causes highly significant reduction in fasting plasma glucose and a significant decrease in 24 – hour urinary VMA levels in newly diagnosed untreated type 2 diabetic subjects.

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