Liraglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with Long-Standing Type 2 Diabetes

The latest study of the cardiovascular effects of a diabetes drug involves liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue. In this randomized trial, researchers enrolled 9340 type 2 diabetic patients who fell into one of two groups: (1) 50 or older who had known cardiovascular (CV) disease (81%), and (2) 60 or older with at least one CV risk factor (19%). Patients received either liraglutide (1.8 mg subcutaneously daily) or placebo in addition to their previous diabetes drugs. At baseline, most were taking metformin, about half were taking sulfonylureas, and about half were taking insulin. Mean age was 64, mean duration of diabetes was 13 years, and mean glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) was 8.7%.

During median follow-up of 3.8 years,…