Effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 on major cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

- Effect of GLP-1 on cardiovascular risk in T2DM patients was investigated.
- 13 trials reporting data on 11,943 T2DM patients were included in analysis.
- GLP-1 therapy might have no or little effect on MACEs and total mortality.

The effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of GLP-1 and placebo/conventional antidiabetic agents on cardiovascular risk in T2DM patients. PubMed, EmBase and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify its eligible studies as well as manual searches for the reliability of this study. All eligible trials were performed in T2DM patients who received GLP-1 therapy or placebo/conventional antidiabetic agents. The reported outcomes included major cardiovascular events (MACE), and total mortality. Of 490 identified studies, we included 13 trials reporting data on 11,943 T2DM patients. Overall, the pooled results suggested that GLP-1 therapy has no or little effect on MACE (RR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.88-1.12; P = 0.872) and total mortality (RR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.70-1.15; P = 0.399). Furthermore, sensitivity analysis indicated that GLP-1 was associated with lower incidence of total mortality (RR: 0.28; 95% CI: 0.08-0.93; P = 0.037). We concluded that GLP-1 therapy was not associated with MACE and total mortality compared with placebo or antidiabetic agents.