Evidence Hub

Effect of Liraglutide on Arterial Inflammation Assessed as [18F]FDG Uptake in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

R. S. Ripa, E. Zobel, B. J. von Scholten, Jacob K. Jensen, T. Binderup, L. Díaz, V. R. Curovic, T. Hansen et al.

Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging, 2021

51 participants · 49 citations

Abstract

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: The mechanism behind the cardiovascular protection observed with human GLP-1 RA (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) in type 2 diabetes is unknown. We hypothesized that treatment with the GLP-1 RA liraglutide had a positive effect on vascular inflammation. Methods: LIRAFLAME (Effect of liraglutide on vascular inflammation in type-2 diabetes: A randomized, placebocontrolled, double-blind, parallel clinical PET/CT trial) was a double-blind, randomized controlled trial performed at a single university hospital clinic in Denmark. Patients with type 2 diabetes were via computer-generated randomization list assigned (1:1) liraglutide up to 1.8 mg or placebo once daily for 26 weeks. The primary end point was change in vascular inflammation over 26 weeks assessed by [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography. Analyses were based on intention-to-treat. Key secondary outcomes included change in other indices of atherosclerosis. Results: Between October 26, 2017, and August 16, 2019, 147 patients were screened and 102 were randomly assigned to liraglutide (n=51) or placebo (n=51) and 99 (97%) completed the trial. Change in the [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography measure of vascular inflammation (active-segment target-to-background ratio) did not differ between treatment groups: change from baseline to 26 weeks was −0.04 (95% CI, −0.17 to 0.08) in the liraglutide…

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: 51 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