Safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors drugs among heart failure patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) reduce morbidity and mortality for heart failure (HF) patients and are recommended as cornerstones for their medical therapy. Utilization in clinical practice remains low for multiple reasons, one of which may be adverse events. We investigated the incidence of these events to see if they are associated with SGLT2i use. A systematic search was performed in databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Clinicaltrials.gov, and WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Relevant randomized controlled trial studies assessing the safety outcomes of SGLT2i in HF patients were included in this study. We conducted the common-effect meta-analysis to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of safety outcomes in SGLT2i compared with placebo. Eighteen studies were included in the meta-analysis composed of 12 925 HF patients taking an SGLT2i and 12 747 taking a placebo. The meta-analysis indicated that the all-cause mortality and serious adverse events (SAEs) were lower in the SGLT2i group (RR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85-0.97; P = 0.005, I2 = 0%; and RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.90-0.95; P < 0.001, I2 = 43%, respectively). Volume depletion and genitourinary infections were more prevalent in the SGLT2i group (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.28; P = 0.001, I2 = 0%; and RR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.13-1.43; P < 0.001, I2 = 17%, respectively). Our meta-analysis demonstrated that using SGLT2is in HF patients was correlated with reduced mortality and SAEs, with a more prominent effect in HF with reduced ejection fraction patients and those taking dapagliflozin.