Effect of Empagliflozin Treatment on Ventricular Repolarization Parameters

Background: An example of a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor is Empagliflozin. It is a new medicine for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but there is increasing interest in how empagliflozin affects the heart. This study aims to examine the impact of empagliflozin treatment on ventricular repolarization parameters in T2DM patients. Methods: T2DM patients were included in a prospective study. Measurements of ventricular repolarization parameters, including QT interval, corrected QT interval (QTc), QT dispersion (QTd), Tpeak-to-Tend interval (Tp-e), and Tpeak-to-Tend interval corrected for QTc (Tp-e/QTc), were obtained before initiating empagliflozin treatment and six months following treatment initiation. Statistical analysis was performed to assess changes in these parameters. Results: In this study, 95 patients were diagnosed with T2DM out of 177 patients. Among T2DM patients, 40 were male (42%) compared to 48% males in controls (p = 0.152). The average age of the T2DM patients was 60.2 ± 9.0 years, compared to 58.2 ± 9.2 years in the control group (p = 0.374). When comparing pre- and post-treatment measurements of parameters representing ventricular repolarization (QT 408.5 ± 22.9/378.8 ± 14.1, p < 0.001; QTc 427.0 ± 20.5/404.7 ± 13.8, p < 0.001; QTd 52.1 ± 1.2/47.8 ± 1.7, p < 0.001; Tp-e 82.3 ± 8.7/67.1 ± 5.1, p < 0.001; Tp-e/QTc 0.19 ± 0.01/0.17 ± 0.01, p < 0.001 (respectively)), statistically significant improvements were observed. A statistically significant dose-dependent decline in the magnitude of change in the QTc parameter (19.4/29.6, p = 0.038) was also observed. Conclusions: According to these results, empagliflozin may decrease the risk of potential ventricular arrhythmias.