Study Review: Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes with Empagliflozin in Heart Failure

In patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), treatment with sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors has been consistently shown in studies to reduce the risk of heart failure (HF) hospitalisation. This benefit is not seen in patients with HF who are treated with other antidiabetic medicines and therefore is thought to be a pleiotropic effect specific to SGLT2 inhibitors. This led to the hypothesis of whether the benefit of SGLT2 inhibitors in HF extends to those without diabetes. This publication summarises the principal findings of the EMPEROR-Reduced trial that evaluated the safety and efficacy of the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin in patients with symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), irrespective of diabetes status. This review is sponsored by an educational grant from Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly.
A free full-text PDF of the paper, Packer M, et al. Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes with Empagliflozin in Heart Failure. N Engl J Med. 2020;383(15):1413-1424 is available here.