The use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension: a focus on African-American populations

• Published in: Postgraduate medicine Vol. 129; no. 4; pp. 421 - 429
• Main Author: Kountz, David S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 19-05-2017
• Subjects: African Americans; Benzhydryl Compounds - therapeutic use; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - drug therapy; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - ethnology; Glucosides - therapeutic use; Humans; hypertension; Hypertension - drug therapy; Hypertension - ethnology; Hypoglycemic Agents - therapeutic use; kidney disease; race; sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors; Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2 - antagonists & inhibitors; type 2 diabetes; sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors; kidney disease; type 2 diabetes; Diabetes; race; hypertension
• ISSN: 0032-5481; 1941-9260
• DOI: 10.1080/00325481.2017.1313074

Diabetes, hypertension, and severe kidney disease are all disproportionately prevalent in African-Americans. Clinical trials data from type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients have demonstrated that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have a positive effect on cardiovascular risk factors - such as improved blood glucose control, reduced body weight, and reduced blood pressure - and also support a possible renal-protective role for SGLT2 inhibitors. The EMPA-REG OUTCOME
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trial revealed that empagliflozin was associated with reduced adverse cardiovascular and renal outcomes. Thus, SGLT2 inhibitors could potentially provide clinicians with a treatment option that addresses multiple pathophysiologic aspects of the cardiometabolic disease processes that may affect end-organ function in African-American patients with T2D and hypertension. This review examines some of the clinical issues associated with this patient group and the role that SGLT2 inhibitors may provide in their treatment.