Study shows reduced mortality rates in people with type 2 diabetes with CVD risk

By Editor
14th August 2019
Pharmaceutical, Research Type 2 diabetes

Metformin use was associated with lower rates of all-cause mortality in people with type 2 diabetes at high risk of cardiovascular disease, research has found.

The conclusion was based on the study of 12,156 people by researchers from Brigham, Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, University of Texas and Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital, Jerusalem.

The research team investigated metformin’s unproved effects on the cardiovascular (CV) system using date from the SAVOR-TIMI 53 trial analysing use of the drug and clinical outcomes among people with type 2 diabetes with, or without, heart failure or kidney dysfunction.

Summarising the results in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, the researchers said: “Of the 12,156 patients with baseline biomarker samples, 8,971 (74%) had metformin exposure, 1,611 (13%) had prior HF, and 1,332 (11%) had at least moderate CKD (eGFR ≤45 mL/min/1.73m2). Metformin use was associated with no difference in risk for the composite end point (HRIPTW 0.92; 95% CI 0.76-1.11), but lower risk of all-cause mortality (HRIPTW0.75; 95% CI 0.59-0.95). There was no significant relationship between metformin use and these end points in patients with prior HF or moderate to severe CKD.”

They concluded: “In a cohort of 12,156 patients with T2DM and high CV risk, metformin use was associated with lower rates of all-cause mortality, including after adjustment for clinical variables and biomarkers, but not lower rates of the composite endpoint of CV death, MI, or ischemic stroke. This association was most apparent in patients without prior HF or moderate to severe CKD.”

To access the study, click here.

Picture credit: Anastasiia Ostapovych

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