WASHINGTON — Women gain more weight on thiazolidinedione therapy than do men, Amy Toscano-Zukor, D.O., and Xiangbing Wang, M.D., reported in a poster at the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
Weight gain is often noted in patients with type 2 diabetes after initiation of thiazolidinedione therapy. Proposed mechanisms include fluid retention and/or an increase in subcutaneous fat accompanied by a decrease in visceral fat, according to Dr. Toscano-Zukor and Dr. Wang of Saint Peter's University Hospital, New Brunswick, N.J., and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick.
In the first study to compare weight gain by gender among patients on thiazolidinediones, the investigators randomly reviewed the charts of 31 men and 30 women in an outpatient endocrinology practice.
All patients were receiving either pioglitazone or rosiglitazone, as monotherapy or as part of a multidrug regimen for diabetes. The men and women did not differ significantly in mean age, initial body weight, body mass index, diabetes duration, hemoglobin A1c, or number/type of diabetes medications.
The proportion of patients with significant weight gain, defined as a greater than 3% increase in weight from baseline, was 60% of female patients and 26% of males.
Among those who gained weight, women gained a higher percentage of body weight than did men (9.3% vs. 5.1%).