Cardioprotective Effect of SGLT2 Inhibitor in Diabetic Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Multicenter Propensity Score Matched Study

Introduction: Kidney transplantation (KT) improves the cardiovascular outcomes of patients with end-stage kidney disease. However, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of premature death and graft loss in KT recipients (KTRs) with diabetes. We evaluated the cardioprotective effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) in KTRs with diabetes.

Methods: A total of 750 KTRs with diabetes were enrolled from 6 tertiary hospitals. Among them, 129 patients (17.2%) were prescribed SGLT2i. The primary outcome was the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), which comprised myocardial infarction (MI), death from cardiovascular causes, hospitalization for heart failure, and stroke. Multivariable Cox regression analysis and propensity score matching were used to investigate the effect of SGLT2i on clinical outcomes.

Results: In the matched cohort, MACE occurred in 5 patients (3.9%) in the SGLT2i group and 15 patients (11.8%) in the non-SGLT2i group, out of 127 patients in each group over 55.3 months. The incidence of MACE and MI was lower in the SGLT2i group than in the non-SGLT2i group (P = 0.036 and 0.008, respectively). In multivariate analysis, the SGLT2i group had a lower risk of MACE and MI than the non-SGLT2i group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.30 and 0.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10-0.88 and 0.004-0.40; P = 0.028 and 0.006, respectively). There was no difference in the incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) between the 2 groups.

Conclusion: SGLT2i significantly decreased the risk of cardiovascular events in KTRs with diabetes, particularly lowering the incidence of MI and death from cardiovascular causes. SGLT2i can be used to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in KTRs with diabetes.