THE ESSENTIAL
- Treatment with tirzepatide carries a lower risk than placebo of death from cardiovascular causes or worsening of diastolic heart failure caused by obesity.
- Mounjaro improves patients’ ability to walk in six minutes, reduces a biological marker used to measure inflammation, body weight and that of the heart and the fat around it.
- The side effects of nausea and diarrhea were mostly mild.
Initially developed against type 2 diabetes, the treatment Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is now taken by people suffering from obesity to lose weight. This agonist of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) and GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) “continues to provide benefits that go far beyond weight loss”said Christopher Kramer, researcher and chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA Health) in the United States. Indeed, he and his team discovered that this drug reduced the risk of death due to heart failure.
731 patients with insufficiency received tirzepatide or placebo
To reach this conclusion, scientists conducted a study in which 731 adults with diastolic heart failure caused by obesity. As a reminder, in these patients, the left ventricle of the heart becomes rigid and can no longer pump blood properly. During a two-year follow-up, 364 volunteers received up to 15 mg of tirzepatide subcutaneously once a week and 367 participants received a placebo. “The two primary endpoints were a composite of death from cardiovascular causes or worsening of cardiac failure (assessed in an analysis of time to first event) and progression from onset to study and the 52nd week”, the authors clarified.
Death, weight, inflammation: the benefits of Mounjaro for the management of heart failure
The results, published in the journal New England Journal of Medicineshowed that 56 people who received a placebo died from a cardiovascular cause or saw their heart failure worsen, compared to 36 who took tirzepatide. According to the team, members of the Mounjaro group saw an improvement in their ability to walk within six minutes and a sharp decrease in a biological marker used to measure inflammation and predict the risk of serious cardiac events. These patients also lost weight, losing an average of 11.6% of their body weight after receiving treatment. “Adverse events (mainly gastrointestinal) leading to treatment discontinuation were observed in 23 patients (6.3%) in the tirzepatide group and in 5 patients (1.4%) in the placebo group,” can we read in the works.
Christopher Krame also led additional research that examined how Mounjaro affected the structure and function of participants’ hearts. MRI scans revealed beneficial reductions in the weight of the heart and the fat surrounding it. “This medication reverses the abnormal properties of the heart caused by obesity,” he added.
Health
