I’m not diabetic...why did my Heart Failure provider put me on a diabetic medicine?
In the last two years there have been 3 studies done that looked at a class of drugs called Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors (SGLT2 inhibitors) that was initially used to treat diabetic patients. These drugs are called empagliflozin (Jardiance) and dapagliflozin (Farxiga). The studies* done with these medications showed that SGLT2 inhibitors helped prevent worsening heart failure, decreased hospitalizations and death in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) regardless if they had diabetes or not. Your Heart Failure provider has put you on this medication because he/she is wanting to give you the best options for improving your heart failure and preventing hospitalizations or death. If you have questions regarding these medications, talk to your heart failure provider.
*Study names include: DAPA-HF, DEFINE-HF, and EMPEROR-Reduced.
Reference: Maddox TM, Januzzi JL Jr., Allen LA, Breathett K, Butler J, Davis LL, Fonarow GC, Ibrahim NE, Lindenfeld J, Masoudi FA, Motiwala SR, Oliveros E, Patterson JH, Walsh MN, Wasserman A, Yancy CW, Youmans QR. 2021 update to the 2017 ACC expert consensus decision pathway for optimization of heart failure treatment: answers to 10 pivotal issues about heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: a report of the American College of Cardiology Solution Set Oversight Committee. J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;77:772–810
