Modest weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes could be the single greatest factor in arresting the decline in microvascular function, a UK study suggests.

The findings also show that patients prescribed sulfonylureas experience greater declines in microvascular function than those on other diabetes therapies, the researchers say.

Writing in Diabetologia, the University of Exeter-led team analysed data from 253 participants — 154 with type 2 diabetes, 99 without — to investigate the predictors of both endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent microvascular functional decline.

Almost two-thirds of those in the diabetes group were prescribed oral glucose-lowering medication, 5% received insulin, and 13% were treated with a combination of both.