Liraglutide improves cardiac function in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic heart failure

To compare the effect of liraglutide, sitagliptin and insulin glargine added to standard therapy on left ventricular function in post-ischemic type-2 diabetes mellitus patients.

We evaluated 32 type-2 diabetes mellitus Caucasians with history of post-ischemic chronic heart failure NYHA class II/III and/or left ventricular ejection fraction ≤45 %. Participants underwent laboratory determinations, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire and 6 min walking test at baseline and following 52 weeks treatment. Patients were treated with standard therapy for chronic heart failure and were randomized to receive liraglutide, sitagliptin and glargine in addition to metformin and/or sulfonylurea.

Liraglutide treatment induced an improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction from 41.5 ± 2.2 to 46.3 ± 3 %; P = 0.001). On the contrary, treatment with sitagliptin and glargine induced no changes in left ventricular ejection fraction (41.8 ± 2.6 vs. 42.5 ± 2.5 % and 42 ± 1.5 vs. 42 ± 1.6 %, respectively; P = NS). Indexed end-systolic LV volume was reduced only in liraglutide-treated patients (51 ± 9 vs. 43 ± 8 ml/m²; P < 0.05). Liraglutide treatment induced also a significant increase in the anterograde stroke volume (39 ± 9 vs. 49 ± 11 ml; P < 0.05), whereas no differences were observed in the other two groups. Cardiac output and cardiac index showed a significant increase only in liraglutide-treated patients (4.4 ± 0.5 vs. 5.0 ± 0.6 L/min; P < 0.05 and 1.23 ± 0.26 vs. 1.62 ± 0.29 L/m²; P = 0.005, respectively). Liraglutide treatment was also associated with an improvement of functional capacity and an improvement of quality of life.

These data provide evidence that treatment with liraglutide is associated with improvement of cardiac function and functional capacity in failing post-ischemic type-2 diabetes mellitus patients.