According to a new medical research, a drug used to treat people with type 2 diabetes could also help with improving their heart function. In the U.K., approximately 3.7 million people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes that can damage the walls of the arteries that can lead to heart failure or heart attack.
In a new development, researchers at the School of Medicine, University of Leeds have discovered that empagliflozin could also improve the function of the heart for patients with type 2 diabetes. Typically, this drug is prescribed to patients of type 2 diabetes to reduce their blood sugar level.
To establish this, the research team engaged 18 people with type 2 diabetes to take this medication and were monitored for over three months. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation.
For the study part, the patients were subject to MRI scanning of the heart, blood tests, before the commencement of the treatment. The results of these patients were compared with people without the condition, and this led to find that patients with type 2 diabetes had low energy levels of the heart. Moreover, this led to find that patients of type 2 diabetes had low percentage of pumping of the blood from the heart each time it contracted.
After twelve weeks, follow-up blood tests and scans were carried out, and for most patients this revealed significant improvement in the heart energy levels, along with significant improvement in the blood pumped from the heart. Besides this, a 61 percent reduction in the substance called NT-proBNP discovered in the blood of these patients. Clinically, high level of the NT-proBNP can indicate a heart failure.
