Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2018 | Original investigation
Glitazones and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors as the second-line oral anti-diabetic agents added to metformin reduce cardiovascular risk in Type 2 diabetes patients: a nationwide cohort observational study
Authors:
Cheng-Wei Chan, Chu-Leng Yu, Jiunn-Cherng Lin, Yu-Cheng Hsieh, Che-Chen Lin, Chen-Ying Hung, Cheng-Hung Li, Ying-Chieh Liao, Chu-Pin Lo, Jin-Long Huang, Ching-Heng Lin, Tsu-Juey Wu
Published in:
Cardiovascular Diabetology
|
Issue 1/2018
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Abstract
Objective
Metformin is the standard first-line drug for patients with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM). However, the optimal second-line oral anti-diabetic agent (ADA) remains unclear. We investigated the cardiovascular risk of various ADAs used as add-on medication to metformin in T2DM patients from a nationwide cohort.
Methods
T2DM patients using different add-on oral ADAs after an initial metformin therapy of > 90 days were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database. Five classes of ADAs, including sulphonylureas (SU), glinides, thiazolidinediones (TZD), alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (AGI), and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4I) were selected for analysis. The reference group was the SU added to metformin. Patients were excluded if aged < 20 years, had a history of stroke or acute coronary syndrome (ACS), or were receiving insulin treatment. The primary outcomes included any major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) including ACS, ischemic/hemorrhagic stroke, and death. A Cox regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) for MACE.
Results
A total of 26,742 patients receiving their add-on drug to metformin of either SU (n = 24,277), glinides (n = 962), TZD (n = 581), AGI (n = 808), or DPP-4I (n = 114) were analyzed. After a mean follow-up duration of 6.6 ± 3.4 years, a total of 4775 MACEs occurred. Compared with the SU+metformin group (reference), the TZD+metformin (adjusted HR: 0.66; 95% CI 0.50–0.88, p = 0.004) and AGI+metformin (adjusted HR: 0.74; 95% CI 0.59–0.94, p = 0.01) groups showed a significantly lower risk of MACE.
Conclusion
Both TZD and AGI, when used as an add-on drug to metformin were associated with lower MACE risk when compared with SU added to metformin in this retrospective cohort study.
Trial registration CE13152B-3. Registered 7 Mar, 2013, retrospectively registered