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Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors Protect the Heart

Findings show benefit for cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes regardless of kidney function

TUESDAY, Feb. 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors protect against cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a review published in the Feb. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Clare Arnott, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., from the University of New South Wales in Newtown, Australia, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to identify four large-scale trials of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibition versus placebo in 38,723 patients with diabetes mellitus. Cardiovascular outcomes were evaluated overall and for defined subgroups (patients with cardiovascular disease, 59 percent; reduced kidney function, 20 percent; and heart failure, 12 percent).

During a mean 2.9 years of follow-up, the researchers identified 3,828 major adverse cardiac events. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibition was beneficial for major adverse cardiac events (hazard ratio, 0.88) with no variance of the effect across patient subgroups. All patient subgroups showed benefit with respect to hospitalization for heart failure, cardiovascular death, and death from any cause. Protection for stroke was only seen for the subgroup of patients with reduced kidney function.

“Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibition should be considered in all patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, even in the absence of established disease,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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