A class of medications commonly prescribed to lower blood sugar in diabetic patients can also protect them from developing heart failure, a new study has found.
The study looked at 4,427 diabetic patients who were taking blood-sugar-lowering medications at Henry Ford Hospital in US between January 1, 2000 and July 1, 2012.
Of these patients, 1,488 were taking GLP-1 medications (glucagon-like peptide-1 analogs and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors) and 2,939 were not.
"People with diabetes are at risk for developing heart failure. Diabetic adults die of heart disease two to four times more than those without diabetes," said Henry Ford researcher and cardiologist David Lanfear, lead author of the study.
"Our study data suggest that diabetic patients taking a particular class of medications are less likely to develop heart failure," said Lanfear.
The study subjects were observed over a period of 663 days, in which there were 281 hospitalisations, of which 184 were due to heart failure, and 158 deaths.
Results were adjusted for factors such as gender, age, race, coronary disease, heart failure, duration of diabetes, and the number of anti-diabetic medications, in order to identify the effect specifically attributable to taking GLP-1 medications.
Use of GLP-1 medications was associated with a reduced risk of hospitalisation for heart failure or any other reason, as well as fewer deaths.
"These preliminary results look very promising. However this was a retrospective study and this subject needs further investigation," Lanfear said in a statement.
The results of the study were presented at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in San Francisco.
