Trending News Today: Empagliflozin May Help Reduce A1C, Cardiovascular Risk in Type 1 Diabetes

Adding sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin to insulin can give patients with type 1 diabetes greater glycemic control than insulin alone, The American Journal of Managed Care reported. According to the article, the small prospective study included just 27 patients, for whom empagliflozin was added off-label per protocol within clinical practice. After 52 weeks, the results showed reduced A1C from 8.0% ±0.7% to 7.2% ±0.8%, increased time in range for capillary glucose monitoring, and decrease in weight and systolic blood pressure in patients who took empagliflozin, the article reported.

A new study found built-in racial bias in a widely-used hospital algorithm that predicts which patients are most likely to need follow-up care, STAT reported. According to the article, the study showed that only 18% of the patients identified by the algorithm as needing more care were black, compared with approximately 82% of white patients. Overall, the study authors found that by retraining a new algorithm using patients’ biological data rather than insurance claims data, there was an 84% reduction in bias because the previous algorithm failed to account for the nearly 50,000 chronic conditions experienced by black patients, the article reported.

Taking hypertension medications at bedtime may help better control blood pressure during the night and lower the risk of death or illness due to cardiovascular disease, Reuters reported. According to the article, the study followed approximately 20,000 patients for a median of 6 years who were randomly assigned to take their blood pressure-lowering medications first thing in the morning or at bedtime. Overall, the study found that patients who took their medications at bedtime cut their overall risk of dying from cardiovascular causes nearly in half compared with those taking their drugs in the morning.