A group of researchers led by Dr Paolo Di Bartolo at the Diabetes Unit in Ravenna, Italy, compared the effects of insulin lispro and insulin aspart in patients with type 1 diabetes. The researchers conducted a single-centre, randomized, controlled, 3-day crossover trial assessing the effect of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) of insulin aspart and insulin lispro on glycaemic control in 17 patients with type 1 diabetes. Patients were randomized to receive either insulin aspart or insulin lispro by CSII, followed the next day by a standard meal for breakfast and lunch with a bolus of either insulin lispro or insulin aspart based on insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio. Patients were monitored for 8 hours, after which they received a crossover treatment of either insulin lispro or insulin aspart followed by the same meal, bolus insulin, and monitoring procedure as was implemented for the previous treatment regimen.

The researchers found that while hypoglycaemic episodes were similar for both treatments, postprandial blood glucose levels, based on absolute delta glucose measurements, were more stable with insulin apart than insulin lispro (7.04 vs 9.04, respectively; p = 0.0019).

The researchers concluded that pre-meal infusion of insulin aspart was more effective in maintaining postprandial blood glucose levels in patients with type 1 diabetes than insulin lispro.

Diabetes Technol Ther. 2008;10:495-8.