IMR Press / RCM / Volume 25 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2502064
Open Access Original Research
Effect of Empagliflozin Treatment on Ventricular Repolarization Parameters
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1 Department of Cardiology, Yuzuncu yil University, Faculty of Medicine, 65080 Van, Turkey
2 Department of Cardiology, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Faculty of Medicine, Goztepe Training and Research Hospital, 34722 Istanbul, Turkey
3 Department of Cardiology, Istanbul University – Cerrahpaşa, Institute of Cardiology, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey
*Correspondence: adematici10@gmail.com (Adem Atici)
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2024, 25(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2502064
Submitted: 10 September 2023 | Revised: 19 October 2023 | Accepted: 26 October 2023 | Published: 18 February 2024
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: An example of a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor is Empagliflozin. It is a new medicine for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but there is increasing interest in how empagliflozin affects the heart. This study aims to examine the impact of empagliflozin treatment on ventricular repolarization parameters in T2DM patients. Methods: T2DM patients were included in a prospective study. Measurements of ventricular repolarization parameters, including QT interval, corrected QT interval (QTc), QT dispersion (QTd), Tpeak-to-Tend interval (Tp-e), and Tpeak-to-Tend interval corrected for QTc (Tp-e/QTc), were obtained before initiating empagliflozin treatment and six months following treatment initiation. Statistical analysis was performed to assess changes in these parameters. Results: In this study, 95 patients were diagnosed with T2DM out of 177 patients. Among T2DM patients, 40 were male (42%) compared to 48% males in controls (p = 0.152). The average age of the T2DM patients was 60.2 ± 9.0 years, compared to 58.2 ± 9.2 years in the control group (p = 0.374). When comparing pre- and post-treatment measurements of parameters representing ventricular repolarization (QT 408.5 ± 22.9/378.8 ± 14.1, p < 0.001; QTc 427.0 ± 20.5/404.7 ± 13.8, p < 0.001; QTd 52.1 ± 1.2/47.8 ± 1.7, p < 0.001; Tp-e 82.3 ± 8.7/67.1 ± 5.1, p < 0.001; Tp-e/QTc 0.19 ± 0.01/0.17 ± 0.01, p < 0.001 (respectively)), statistically significant improvements were observed. A statistically significant dose-dependent decline in the magnitude of change in the QTc parameter (19.4/29.6, p = 0.038) was also observed. Conclusions: According to these results, empagliflozin may decrease the risk of potential ventricular arrhythmias.

Keywords
empagliflozin
type 2 diabetes mellitus
ventricular repolarization
QT interval
arrhythmias
SGLT-2 inhibitor
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