(HealthDay)—Incretin treatment appears to improve non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and non-obstructive coronary artery stenosis (NOCS), according to a study published online Sept. 26 in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
Raffaele Marfella, M.D., Ph.D., from Università degli Studi della Campania in Italy, and colleagues compared the 12-month prognosis of individuals with NOCS-diabetes (20 to 49 percent luminal stenosis) with first NSTEMI with that of individuals without diabetes. They also investigated the prognosis of NSTEMI-NOCS diabetes patients previously treated with incretin-based therapy with a matched cohort of NSTEMI-NOCS patients never treated with incretin. Patients with diabetes were characterized as current incretin users (six months, GLP-1 agonists or DPP-4 inhibitors) and never incretin users.
The researchers found that all-cause death, cardiac death, readmission for acute coronary syndrome, and heart failure were higher in patients with diabetes than those without diabetes. Among the diabetes patients, current incretin users had a significantly lower rate of all-cause death, cardiac death, and readmission for ACS through the 12-month period.
“In type 2 diabetic patients with NOCS-NSTEMI, we observed higher incidence of one-year mortality, and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, as compared to non-diabetic NOCS-NSTEMI patients. In diabetic patients, never-incretin-users have worse prognosis as compared to current-incretin-users,” conclude the authors.