SGLT-2 inhibitors can cut the rate of recurrent gout flares by a third compared with DPP-4 inhibitors in older adults with type 2 diabetes, suggest results from a large cohort study.

US and Canadian doctors say gliflozins may also reduce the risk of gout-related hospitalisations and MI, with the benefits seen regardless of prior urate-lowering therapy.

“These findings suggest that SGLT-2 inhibitors could have a much-needed ability to simultaneously reduce the burden of recurrent gout flares and coronary sequelae in patients with gout and type 2 diabetes,” they wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine last month.

Their propensity score–matched study compared outcomes between 8100 patients (mean age 66) — most of whom were men — with gout and type 2 diabetes and who were treated with either SGLT-2 inhibitors or DPP-4 inhibitors.