Sulphonylureas (SUs) subclasses have different risks of all-cause mortality, acute
myocardial infarction (AMI), and
stroke. Therefore, we assessed these risks in patients with
type 2 diabetes mellitus administered
gliclazide,
glimepiride, or
metformin monotherapy with retrospective cohort study design. Total 195,235 subjects were included in the study who were ≥20 years' old and prescribed monotherapy for at least 1 year as a first-line
therapy for incident diabetes from January 01, 2009 to December 31, 2013 in the National Health Insurance Service Claim data. Incidence and hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause mortality, AMI, and
stroke were compared with
glimepiride monotherapy as a reference.
Gliclazide monotherapy increased all-cause mortality compared with
glimepiride monotherapy. However, the
gliclazide and
glimepiride groups showed no difference in AMI and
stroke incidences. In line with previous studies,
metformin monotherapy showed significant clinical benefits in reducing risks of all-cause mortality, AMI, and
stroke compared with
glimepiride. This population-based cohort study suggested that
gliclazide increases risks of all-cause mortality and has similar risk of AMI and
stroke with
gliclazide monotherapy in Korean.