Evidence Hub

Comparative Effects of Empagliflozin and Vildagliptin on Inflammation and Atrial Function in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Artery Disease: EMPA-VILDA-Response trial

Werida RH, Khedr NF, Khairat I, Khedr L

European journal of pharmacology, 2025

120 participants · 2 citations

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) continue to be leading causes of global morbidity and mortality. Although sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have demonstrated cardioprotective benefits in patients with advanced cardiovascular disease, their effects compared to other antidiabetic agents remain less well characterized. This randomized, controlled trial aimed to compare the effects of empagliflozin (EMPA), an SGLT2 inhibitor, with vildagliptin (VILDA), a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, on cardiac function and inflammatory biomarkers in CAD patients with T2DM. A total of 120 patients were randomized to receive either EMPA 10 mg/day or VILDA 50 mg/day for six months. Clinical outcomes assessed included glycemic control, lipid profiles, inflammatory biomarkers, and echocardiographic measures of myocardial function. Both treatment groups showed significant improvements in glycemic control and lipid profiles. However, patients in the EMPA group exhibited superior outcomes compared with VILDA group, including: decreased HbA1c levels (6.3 ± 0.9 vs. 6.8 ± 0.9; p = 0.002), hs-CRP (8.8 ± 1.1 vs. 9.7 ± 1.5; p < 0.001), sortilin (1.0 ± 0.6 vs. 1.7 ± 0.6; p < 0.001), TNF-α (1.2 ± 0.3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.3; p < 0.001), leptin levels (9.4 ± 1.7 vs. 10.1 ± 1.7; p = 0.02), and increased adiponectin (1.9 ± 0.7 vs. 1.4 ± 0.6; p < 0.001), Moreover, EMPA significantly improved atrial myocardial function, preserved ejection fraction (EF), E/E'…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 120 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free