One hundred and sixteen Latin American type 2 diabetic patients previously only on a diet were enrolled in this multicenter, multinational, nonrandomized, noncontrolled study. Only 109 completed the study. After 8 weeks of treatment with 120 mg of nateglinide, administered prior to each meal, the postprandial (2 h) glucose concentration decreased to 85.11 +/- 5.65 mg/dl (p < 0.0001), and HbA(1c) values decreased to 1.06 +/- 0.10% (p < 0.0001). No response differences were detected in relation to age, gender, or ethnicity, but we did encounter a better response in recently diagnosed patients (