Cardiovascular Diabetology (Mar 2023)

Systolic blood pressure reduction with tirzepatide in patients with type 2 diabetes: insights from SURPASS clinical program

  • Ildiko Lingvay,
  • Ofri Mosenzon,
  • Katelyn Brown,
  • Xuewei Cui,
  • Ciara O’Neill,
  • Laura Fernández Landó,
  • Hiren Patel

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-023-01797-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Background Tirzepatide, a once-weekly glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide/ glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, is approved in the United States, Europe and Japan for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Across the SURPASS-1 to -5 clinical studies, tirzepatide 5, 10 and 15 mg demonstrated significant improvements in glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (− 1.9 to − 2.6%), body weight (− 6.6 to − 13.9%) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (− 2.8 to − 12.6 mmHg) at the end of study treatment. Methods Post-hoc mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate weight-loss dependent and weight-loss independent effects of tirzepatide on SBP reductions across the 5 SURPASS studies. The safety population (all randomized patients who took at least 1 dose of study drug) of each study was analyzed. Additional analyses were conducted at individual study level or pooled across 5 SURPASS trials. Results The difference in mean SBP change from baseline at 40 weeks (total effect) between the tirzepatide and comparator groups was − 1.3 to − 5.1 mmHg (tirzepatide 5 mg), − 1.7 to − 6.5 mmHg (tirzepatide 10 mg) and − 3.1 to − 11.5 mmHg (tirzepatide 15 mg). These SBP reductions were primarily mediated through weight loss, with different degrees of contributions from weight-loss independent effects across the different trials. In the SURPASS-4 study, which enrolled patients with established cardiovascular disease, weight-loss independent effects explained 33% to 57% of difference in SBP change between tirzepatide and insulin glargine groups. In a pooled analysis of the SURPASS-1 to -5 studies, there was a significant (p 140 mmHg), while those in the first quartile of baseline SBP category (< 122 mmHg) observed no further decrease in SBP. Conclusions Tirzepatide-induced SBP reduction was primarily mediated through weight loss, with different degrees of contributions from weight-loss independent effects across the different trials. SBP reduction was not dependent on antihypertensive medication use but dependent on baseline SBP value, alleviating theoretical concerns of hypotension.

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