People with diabetes who are taking certain antidiabetic medications may also be taking care of their heart, according to a new study. 

Diabetes Drug Helps Prevent HF

Antidiabetic medications that enhance the GLP-1 pathway (glucagon-like peptide-1 analogs and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors) appeared to reduce the risk of heart failure hospitalization, all-cause hospitalization, and all-cause mortality in diabetics without a prior history of heart failure, reported David Lanfear, MD, and colleagues from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

The retrospective study looked at 4,427 diabetic patients who were taking blood-sugar-lowering medications between January 1, 2000 and July 1, 2012 at Henry Ford. The authors found that those on the GLP-1 inhibitors had a 41% reduced risk of developing heart failure compared with those on other classes of medications (adjusted hazard ratio 0.59, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.85, P=0.001).

This patient group also had a 44% reduced risk of all-cause hospitalization and an 80% decreased risk of all-cause death (P=0.001 for both), Lanfear told MedPage Today. He added that there was no influence on the effects of GLP-1 inhibitors from hypertension medications including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and beta-blockers.

”We thought there might be some signal, but we didn’t expect it to be as strong as what we saw. We were surprised by the strength of the association,” Lanfear said. He also reported the findings at the recent American College of Cardiology meeting.