Role of sacubitril/valsartan in glycemic control of cardiac patients with diabetes: a systematic review

Due to vasculopathy occurring as a diabetic complication, patients with diabetes usually have cardiac comorbidities. One of these comorbidities is heart failure, where sacubitril/valsartan has become a cornerstone in the recent guidelines. However, some glycemic control benefits have been proposed for this medication in recent years. This study aims to explore the literature to evaluate the glycemic control that could be achieved through sacubitril/valsartan in patients with heart failure and diabetes. A literature search was carried out using the PubMed database for the duration between 2010 and 2020. Search terms included a combination of “heart failure”, “diabetes”, “glycemic control”, and “sacubitril/valsartan”. The results were then filtered to comprise original research articles investigating how sacubitril/valsartan controls the glycemic levels in diabetic patients with heart failure. Selected trials mentioned the type of diabetes under investigation. A total of 264 articles were retrieved. Following the exclusion of articles on animals and including trials only on humans, 24 articles appeared. Seven articles were considered eligible, which were published between 2010 and 2020, covering a total of 4017 patients with heart failure and diabetes. Besides the anti-remodeling benefit of sacubitril/ valsartan for heart failure patients, it was also found to help in glycemic control when diabetes is present as a comorbidity.