Drug combination could prevent type 2 heart issues

Combining Pioglitazone with Empagliflozin could help reduce serious cardiovascular events in people with type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

The study, Revitalization of Pioglitazone: The Optimal Agent to be Combined with an SGLT2 Inhibitor, has been published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

Researchers looked at the recently completed EMPA-REG study, which demonstrated that Empagliflozin significantly decreased major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in people with type 2 diabetes, deemed high risk.

The PROactive study showed Pioglitazone decreased the MACE endpoint by a similar degree, due to a marked reduction in both recurrent myocardial infarction and stroke and a modest reduction in cardiovascular death.

It was because of those observations that led researchers to conclude that Pioglitazone might be an “ideal agent” to combine with empagliflozin to “further reduce cardiovascular events in high risk diabetic individuals”.

The study said: “Since Empagliflozin also promotes salt/water loss and would be expected to offset any fluid retention associated with Pioglitazone therapy.”

The team of researchers were led by Ralph A. DeFronzo, who is professor of medicine and chief of the diabetes division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the deputy director of the Texas Diabetes Institute.