In the recent years there has been increasing interest in the effects of oral hypoglycemic drugs on the cardiovascular system. This has arisen because of recognitions that thiazolidine-diones, peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma), may have antiatherogenic actions and that sulphonylureas are capable of closing the ATP-dependent potassium channel. PPAR-gamma agonists exert antiatherogenic action by inhibition the production of monocyte inflammatory cytokines, inhibition of expression of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells, inhibition of the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and have antioxidative effects. The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS), published in 1998, found that the use of sulphonylureas had no increase in cardiovascular mortality and that metformin therapy in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus was associated with reduced cardiovascular death. Recently, the STOP-NIDDM trial has been shown that patients with impaired glucose tolerance treated with the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose had a significant reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease. Currently, the results of the UKPDS trial are the only available clinical data on which to base the choice of treatment for type 2 diabetic patients. When a glucose-lowering oral drug is considered necessary and is not contraindicated, the firstline choice is a sulphonylurea or a glinide (repaglinide or nateglinide) for diabetics who are not overweight and metformin for those who are.