— Significantly lower threat of diabetic macular edema, proliferative diabetic retinopathy
by Charles Bankhead,
Senior Editor, MedPage Today
July 20, 2024
STOCKHOLM– The salt glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) class of diabetes medications might provide more security versus diabetic retinopathy as compared to other hypoglycemic representatives, an analysis of a big commercial database recommended.
SGLT2 inhibitors, such as empagliflozin (Jardiance) and dapagliflozin (Farxiga), decreased the threat of sight-threatening retinopathy by 21-39% versus GLP-1 receptor agonists, DPP-4 inhibitors, and sulfonylureas. The other 3 drug classes were connected with a comparable threat of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy occasions.
Of note, the research study did disappoint an increased threat of diabetic neuropathy problems in clients treated with GLP-1 agonists as had actually been recommended in among the essential trials of semaglutide (Ozempic), stated Andrew J. Barkmeier, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, at the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) conference.
“The SGLT2 inhibitor usage was connected with a lower-risk of sight-threatening retinopathy compared to other classes of glucose-lowering medications,” stated Barkmeier. “GLP-1 receptor agonists did not give increased danger relative to DPP-4 inhibitors and sulfonylureas. The relative inter-class threats were comparable at much shorter and longer period of usage.”
Following the talk, ASRS session co-moderator David Boyer, MD, of Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group in Los Angeles, asked whether the analysis revealed any proof of ischemic optic neuropathy connected with usage of GLP-1 receptor agonists, as just recently reported.
“We did take a look at ischemic neuropathy particularly,” stated Barkmeier. “Clearly these are effective medications that impact broadly our systemic condition, and we remain in the procedure of attempting to identify what are the advantages, what are the prospective issues. That’s plainly going to be studied much deeper.”
The research study to which Boyer referred involved clients who had actually just recently seen a neuro-ophthalmologist, a restriction of the findings’ generalizability, he included.
In action to another concern from Boyer, Barkmeier stated detectives did not gain access to information on the client’s hemoglobin A1c levels, which would have allowed analyses of associations in between A1c chan