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Lactic acidosis due to metformin in type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease stage 3–5: is it significant?

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Abstract

Purpose

To study the incidence of lactic acidosis due to metformin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 3–5.

Methods

We estimated plasma lactate in patients of CKD stage 3 and worse who were continuing metformin on their own prior to stopping the drug.

Result

Of 40 patients included, median duration of T2DM was 60 months (interquartile range IQR 24–120). The mean serum creatinine was 309.4 ± 159.1 µmol/L and mean eGFR was 27.82 ± 12.93 mL/min/1.73 m2 with 3 (7.5%), 16 (40%), 11 (27.5%) and 10 (25%) in CKD stages 3a, 3b, 4 and 5, respectively. They were receiving metformin for a median duration of 24 months (IQR 12.5–60), an average dose of 896 ± 350 mg per day. The median of plasma lactate was 1.36 mmol/L (IQR 1.11–1.75 mmol/L) with three (7.5%) having levels above normal, two (20%) in CKD stage 5 and one (9.1%) in stage 4.

Conclusion

Metformin can be safely used in CKD stage 3 and with regular measurement of plasma lactate in later stages.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded through a seed grant from Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nephrology, Kasturba Medical College and Hospital Manipal, Manipal Academy Higher Education, Madhav Nagar, Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka, 576104, India

    Ravindra Attur Prabhu, Aswani Srinivas Mareddy, Shankar Prasad Nagaraju & Dharshan Rangaswamy

  2. Department of Statistics, Prasanna School of Public Health, MAHE, Udupi, India

    Vasudeva Guddattu

Authors
  1. Ravindra Attur Prabhu
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  2. Aswani Srinivas Mareddy
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  3. Shankar Prasad Nagaraju
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  4. Dharshan Rangaswamy
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  5. Vasudeva Guddattu
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Contributions

RAP: study concept and design, ASM: acquisition of data, SPN and DR: preparation of manuscript, VG: statistical analysis. All authors contributed to the preparation of the report and approved the final version. We have included a conflict of interest disclosure statement in the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravindra Attur Prabhu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement of ethics

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Prabhu, R.A., Mareddy, A.S., Nagaraju, S.P. et al. Lactic acidosis due to metformin in type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease stage 3–5: is it significant?. Int Urol Nephrol 51, 1229–1230 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-019-02136-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-019-02136-y

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