The SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin is associated with a 13% absolute reduced risk of heart failure–related hospitalisation in patients with genetic variants linked to cardiomyopathy, research suggests.

A US-led team has reanalysed data from the DECLARE-TIMI 58 randomised trial of dapagliflozin for cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes, focusing on 12,685 participants with exome data available.

Of these, 121 participants, with a mean age of 63, had a variant in high-confidence cardiomyopathy-linked genes that was known or suspected to be pathogenic, including 65 participants in the treatment arm.

About 17% of untreated carriers were hospitalised for heart failure over a median follow-up of 4.2 years, compared with 3.3% of carriers given dapagliflozin — a rate close to that for non-carriers in the treatment arm (2.5%).