Lower rate of primary composite outcome for type 2 diabetes patients at high cardiovascular risk
THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Empagliflozin in addition to standard care is beneficial for patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk, according to a study published online Sept. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, Sweden.
Bernard Zinman, M.D., from Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues examined the effects of empagliflozin in addition to standard care in patients with type 2 diabetes. A total of 7,020 patients at high cardiovascular risk were randomized to receive 10 mg or 25 mg of empagliflozin or placebo once daily in addition to standard care.
The researchers found that the primary outcome of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke occurred in 10.5 and 12.1 percent of the pooled empagliflozin and placebo groups, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.86). No significant between-group differences were seen in the rates of myocardial infarction or stroke, but there were significantly lower rates of death from cardiovascular causes, hospitalization for heart failure, and death from any cause in the empagliflozin group (38, 35, and 32 percent relative risk reductions, respectively).
“Patients with type 2 diabetes at high risk for cardiovascular events who received empagliflozin, as compared with placebo, had a lower rate of the primary composite cardiovascular outcome and of death from any cause when the study drug was added to standard care,” the authors write.
The study was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly.
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