Antihyperglycemic drugs and cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

In patients with diabetes, a complex and controversial relationship exists between intensive glycemic control and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Although the value of glucose-lowering agents in preventing microvascular complications associated with diabetes has been established, along with reductions in ischemic coronary events, active treatment in one major glycemic-control trial resulted in an unexplained increase in CV-associated mortality and total deaths compared with controls. Questions of CV safety with specific glucose-lowering agents along with the mechanisms underlying their effects on CV events have not been fully answered, underscoring the need for additional well-designed, long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to prove their CV safety vs an active comparator. The CV benefits of one sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor reported in an RCT await confirmation in ongoing trials.