Abstract
Type 2 diabetes mellitus markedly increases the risk of microvascular and macrovascular complications which can be to a certain degree attenuated by optimal diabetes compensation. Insulin therapy is often necessary in patients with type 2 diabetes owing to gradual decrease of beta-cell number.
Nevertheless, this therapy is frequently initiated too late and the insulin doses are not adequately titrated. The aim of this paper is to outline the effects of insulin therapy on the cardiovascular risk factors and the cardiovascular complications in patients with diabetes.
From the physiological standpoint, insulin therapy has a very good potential to positively influence cardiovascular risk. In clinical practice, these positive effects might be somewhat blunted by higher risk of hypoglycemia and weight gain.
The use of insulin analogues enables to achieve comparable or slightly better compensation relative to human insulin with lower risk of above mentioned side effects.