Outcomes of patients with type 2 diabetes treated with SGLT-2 inhibitors versus DPP-4 inhibitors. An Italian real-world study in the context of other observational studies

Aims We compared cardiovascular outcomes of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) receiving sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) or dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i) under routine care. Methods From an administrative claims database of >5.2M citizen, we identified patients with T2D who initiated SGLT2i or DPP4i from 2014 to 2018. Patients were matched by propensity scores. The primary outcome was the 3-point major adverse cardiovascular events (3P-MACE). Results After matching, we included 3216 patients/group, with mean age of 63 years, diabetes duration of 8.7 years, and 20% had cardiovascular disease. During a median follow-up of 18 months, the rate of 3P-MACE was lower among patients who initiated SGLT2i versus DPP4i (HR 0.74; 95 %C.I. 0.58–0.94). Initiators of SGLT2i also showed significantly lower rates of myocardial infarction (HR 0.75; 95 %C.I. 0.56–1.00), hospitalization for heart failure (HR 0.44; 95 %C.I. 0.25–0.95) or cardiovascular causes (HR 0.72; 95 %C.I. 0.60–0.87), and all-cause death (HR 0.49; 95 %C.I. 0.25–0.95). Renal failure was less common with SGLT2i than with DPP4i. Results were consistent to those obtained in a meta-analysis of 10 observational studies on ~1.5M patients. Conclusions Patients with T2D who initiated SGLT2i under routine care had better cardio-renal outcomes and lower all-cause mortality than similar patients who initiated DPP4i.