Will the new SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin help us reduce the risk of hypoglycemia?

Czech version

Authors: Terezie Pelikánová
Authors‘ workplace: Centrum diabetologie IKEM Praha, přednostka prof. MUDr. Terezie Pelikánová, DrSc.
Published in: Vnitř Lék 2014; 60(12): 1102-1108
Category: Review

Overview

The treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes is typically accompanied by hypoglycemia, if insulin or derivatives of sulfonylurea are used within the treatment. Apart from the fact that hypoglycemias are the major obstacle to achieving the desirable compensation of diabetes, hypoglycemia also has a number of serious clinical consequences. A long term serious hypoglycemia may lead to a sudden death, heart attack or irreversible brain damage. Clinically significant are also the light or asymptomatic hypoglycemias which in a considerably negative way affect the patient's quality of life. The use of modern technologies in continuous monitoring of glycemias has shown that the occurrence of asymptomatic hypoglycemias is much higher than we anticipated and that they largely involve nocturnal hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is associated with an increased level of depression, anxiety, dissatisfaction with the treatment and with a greater number of physician office visits. Nocturnal hypoglycemia has a negative impact on the quality of sleep, it may impair cognitive functions and performance efficiency next day. The prevention of hypoglycemia is therefore one of the basic goals of diabetes treatment and the low risk of hypoglycemia is among the main requirements that we place on the newly developed antidiabetic drugs. The negligible risk of hypoglycemia, which is comparable to placebo both in monotherapy and in most combinations with the antidiabetic drugs available today, is evidenced by the data from the studies undertaken with empagliflozin. It shows that the low risk of hypoglycemia is one of the benefits of gliflozins, the new group of medications with a unique mechanism of effect which has quite recently appeared on our market.

Key words:
diabetes mellitus type 2 – gliflozins – hypoglycemia

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