Do they protect the health of the heart and blood vessels?

• About 12.2 million new strokes are diagnosed each year.
• One in four stroke survivors will have another stroke.
• Those who have had a stroke are at increased risk of developing serious heart problems, such as a heart attack.
• The type 2 diabetes drugs GLP-1 agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors may help reduce the risk of a subsequent stroke, heart attack or death in people who have had a stroke compared to those who did not take the drugs, a new study says.

According to World Stroke Associationone in four adults over the age of 25 will have a a stroke lifetime, and about 12.2 million new strokes are diagnosed each year.

Previous studies show this every fourth stroke survivor will have another stroke, and people who have had a stroke are in a state higher risk developing serious heart problems within the first month after a stroke, such as infarct — clinically known as myocardial infarction.

For this study, researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 7,000 adults who had ischemic stroke — the most common type of stroke caused by a blood clot in an artery that brings blood to the brain — between January 2000 and June 2022.

The researchers looked at whether study participants were given GLP-1 agonists or SGLT2 inhibitors after their first stroke.

“GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors are two types of drugs that are often used to help people with diabetes manage their own glycemia,” M. Ali Scheffe, Doctor of Medical Sciencesan internal medicine resident at Henry Ford Medical Center in Warren, Michigan, a research fellow in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and lead author of the study explained Medical news today.

“They also have benefits for heart and kidney healthwhich has led to their use in patients with certain heart conditions or those at risk for cardiovascular disease,” Scheffe continued.

“These drug classes have been studied over the past several years in randomized clinical trials and have shown better cardiovascular outcomes in patients with adipositydiabetes, heart failureand chronic kidney diseases“, he added.

After an average follow-up of three years, Scheffe and his team found that stroke participants who took GLP-1 or SGLT2 drugs had a 74% lower risk of death and an 84% lower risk of heart attack compared to those who did not. . taking these drugs.

And participants who took both drugs also had a lower risk of experiencing a second stroke compared to those who didn’t.

“The current management recommends use for stroke prevention blood thinnersblood pressure control and cholesterol reduce the number of medications in addition to lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke,” Scheffe said.

“If our findings are confirmed externally, it could lead to a change in practice and we can start prescribing these drugs to stroke patients to prevent future events,” he noted.

After reviewing this study, Sandra Narayanan, MDboard-certified vascular neurologist and neurointerventional surgeon at the Pacific Institute of Neurology at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., who was not involved in the study, said MNT that she was surprised by the strong positive response for both drugs to reduce the likelihood of the combined endpoint of death, heart attack, or recurrent ischemic stroke.

“The two major barriers that stroke and MI patients face are compliance and education,” she continued.

In addition, “survey-type research on prescribing practices may be informative for assessing the knowledge of prescribers—internists, family physicians, endocrinologists, and stroke neurologists—before and after dissemination of disease-specific studies,” — said Narayanan.

MNT also communicated with Mir Ali, MDboard-certified general surgeon, bariatric surgeon, and medical director of the MemorialCare Weight Loss Surgery Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, about this study.

“I thought this was an interesting study that showed another benefit of these drugs, so it’s always nice to see drugs that help,” Ali said.

Because this study showed potential benefits for these drugs, Ali said it’s difficult to determine at this point how GLP-1 and SGLT2 drugs might have positive effects on the heart.

“It would be interesting to see how this helps patients — whether it’s an independent effect of the drug itself, secondary to weight loss, or better for glucose control,” he added. “A study aimed at elucidating these details would be useful.”