Liraglutid in diabetic patients in leader study – is there any benefit in patients with heart failure?

Abstract

GLP-1 receptor agonists are a new class of antidiabetic drugs and there are no data about their effects in heart failure (HF) pa-tients. This problem was investigated in an analysis of LEADER study. This study randomized 9 340 type 2 diabetic patients (1 667 patients, 18% of them with HF symptoms in NYHA classes I,II,III) with high cardiovascular risk into treatment with liraglutide (1.8 mg daily) or with placebo, all patients otherwise with standard antidiabetic treatment. The occurence of major adverse cardiovascular events (nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality and HF hospitalizations) was nonsingificantly reduced in the liraglutide treatment arm with relative risk (RR) reduction of 0.81 (diabetic patients with HF) versus of RR 0.88 (diabetic patients without HF), the occurence of mortality was with RR 0.89 (diabetic patients with HF) versus with RR 0.83 (diabetic patients without HF) and the occurence of HF hospitalizations with RR 0.98 (diabetic patients with HF ) versus RR 0 78 (diabetic patients without HF ). Liraglutide can be safely given to type 2 diabetic patients with HF symptoms. It is just not the treatment for HF in diabetic patients.