Tag Archives: dapagliflozin

Introduction Diabetes is a major risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. It is common in patients with heart failure (HF), associated with poorer functional status and worsens prognosis.1-3 The management of diabetes has, until recently, been focused on the lowering of glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). However, not all HbA1c-lowering treatments have beneficial effects on cardiovascular outcomes.1 In fact, intensive glucose or HbA1c lowering with specific drugs may be associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes.4 Sodium-glucose co-transport 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, which inhibit the glucose reabsorption in the proximal

The EU approval is based on positive results from the landmark DAPA-HF phase III trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1911303) and follows the recommendation for approval by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency. Dapagliflozin is the first SGLT2 inhibitor to have shown a statistically significant reduction in the risk of the composite of cardiovascular death or worsening of heart failure events, including hospitalisation for HF.

Landmark trials in heart failure – 30 years from CONSENSUS With 2017 marking the 30th year since the publication of CONSENSUS,1 which first reported a reduction in mortality with enalapril versus placebo in patients with advanced heart failure (HF), the BCS held a dedicated session to review the seminal clinical trials and advances in chronic heart failure management in this period. Dr Rosita Zakeri (Royal Brompton Hospital, London) reviewed this session for us and spoke to the BJC afterwards. Rosita Zakeri The era of vasodilator therapy for heart failure began in the 1990s. Professor Karl Swedberg (University of Gothenberg, Sweden) began

Introduction Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for developing both microvascular (retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) and macrovascular complications (coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease).1 The link between maintaining good glycaemic control and prevention of these complications is well established.2-4 Guidelines recommend a target glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) of 7% or less, but a large number of patients fail to meet this target and, as of yet, no ideal pharmacological blood glucose-lowering agent exists. Existing pharmacological therapies, which have been previously describ