Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2012) 30 OC4.1

1Manchester Children’s Hospital, Manchester, UK; 2Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, UK; 3Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield, UK; 4The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesborough, UK; 5Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull, UK; 6University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry, UK; 7Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK; 8Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, UK; 9The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.


Background: Childhood obesity is increasingly associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Metformin reduces the risk for T2D in adult obese non-diabetic patients, but the evidence in obese children and young people (CYP) is inconclusive.

Design: The metformin in obese children and adolescents (MOCA) trial was a prospective, multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 1.5 g metformin daily in CYP with raised fasting or post-prandial insulin or glucose.

Aim: The primary objective was to assess the effects of metformin on body composition (primary outcome BMI–SDS at 6 months), metabolic risk factors and adipokines.

Methods: Auxology, arterial blood pressure measurement and fasting blood tests (insulin, glucose, fasting lipids, liver function, hs-CRP, lactate, resistin, adiponectin and leptin) were performed at baseline, 3 and 6 months with a prolonged oral glucose tolerance test at baseline and 6 months.

Participants: One hundred and fifty-one obese CYP participated in the trial (metformin: 74, placebo: 77). 67.5% were female, 65.6% post-pubertal, 23.8% British Asian or Afro-Caribbean. Age range 8–18 years, mean age 13.7 (S.D. 2.3) years and mean BMI–SDS 3.4 (0.5).

Results: Metformin was associated with a significant reduction in BMI–SDS compared to placebo at 6 months (mean difference: 0.1 S.D. (95% confidence interval 0.02–0.19), P=0.01,). Fasting glucose (0.16 mmol/l (0–0.33), P=0.05, and adiponectin/leptin ratio (ALR) (0.27 (−0.52 to −0.02), P=0.03) significantly improved at 3 months in the metformin group, but the changes were lost at 6 months. No significant changes were found in the other secondary outcomes.

Conclusion: Metformin therapy has a beneficial treatment effect over placebo for BMI–SDS, fasting glucose and ALR ratio at 3 months, with changes in body composition sustained at 6 months. MOCA is the largest study of its kind to date, and indicates that metformin is clinically useful, safe and well tolerated in obese CYP.

Volume 30

40th Meeting of the British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes

British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes 

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