Impact of empagliflozin on subclinical left ventricular dysfunctions and on the mechanisms involved in myocardial disease progression in type 2 diabetes: rationale and design of the EMPA-HEART trial

Cardiovascular Diabetology

Study Protocol

Andrea Natali¹  Lorenzo Nesti¹  Enrico Calogero²  Iacopo Fabiani²  Vitantonio Di Bello² 

[1] Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Pisa University, Via Savi 27, 56100, Pisa, Italy;Department of Surgery, Medical, Molecular, and Critical Area Pathology, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy;

关键词: Empagliflozin;    SGLT2;    Mycardial dysfunction;    GLS;    Speckle-tracking;    Cardiovascular;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12933-017-0615-6

 received in 2017-07-22, accepted in 2017-10-05,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAsymptomatic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is highly prevalent in type 2 diabetes patients. Unlike the other hypoglycemic drugs, SGLT2 inhibitors have shown potential benefits for reducing cardiovascular death and risk factors, aside from lowering plasma glucose levels. With this study we aim at determining whether the treatment with empagliflozin is associated with an improvement in LV functions in diabetic patients with asymptomatic LV dysfunction against Sitagliptin, which is presumably neutral on myocardial function. To determine changes in LV systolic and diastolic functions we will use speckle-tracking echocardiography, a novel sensitive, non-invasive, bedside method allowing the calculation of LV global longitudinal strain (GLS), an index of myocardial deformability, as well as 3D echocardiography, which allows a better evaluation of LV volumes and mass.MethodsThe EMPA-HEART trial will be a phase III, open label, active-controlled, parallel groups, single centre, exploratory study conducted in Pisa, Italy. A cohort of 75 diabetic patients with normal LV systolic (2D-Echo EF > 50%) and renal (eGFR sec MDRD > 60 ml/min/1.73 mq) functions and no evidence of valvular and/or ischemic heart disease will be randomized to either Empagliflozin 10 mg/die or Sitagliptin 100 mg/die. The primary outcome is to detect a change in GLS from baseline to 1 and 6 months after treatment initiation. The secondary outcomes include changes from baseline to 6 months in 3-D Echocardiography EF, left atrial volume and E/E′, VO2max as measured at cardiopulmonary test, cardiac autonomic function tests (R–R interval during Valsalva manoeuvre, deep-breathing, lying-to-standing), and the determination of a set of plasma biomarkers aimed at studying volume, inflammation, oxidative stress, matrix remodelling, myocyte strain and injury.DiscussionSGLT2 inhibitors might affect myocardial functions through mechanisms acting both directly and indirectly on the myocardium. The set of instrumental and biohumoral tests of our study might actually detect the presence and entity of empagliflozin beneficial effects on the myocardium and shed light on the mechanisms involved. Further, this study might eventually provide information to design a clinical strategy, based on echocardiography and/or biomarkers, to select the patients who might benefit more from this intervention.Trial registration EUDRACT Code 2016-0022250-10

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017