Novel glucose-lowering drugs and the risk of acute kidney injury in routine care; the Stockholm CREAtinine Measurements (SCREAM) project

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the comparative effects of sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RA), or dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) on the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) in routine care, which may differ from the controlled setting of trials. METHODS: Observational study comparing risks of AKI among new users of SGLT2i, GLP1-RA or DPP-4i in the region of Stockholm, Sweden, during 2008–2018. AKI was defined by ICD-10 codes and creatinine-based KDIGO criteria. We used inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to adjust for 60 potential confounders, weighted Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios and absolute risks. RESULTS: We included 17,407 participants who newly initiated DPP-4i (N = 10,605), GLP1-RA (N = 4448) or SGLT2i (N = 2354). Mean age was 63 years (39% women) and median (IQR) eGFR was 89 (73–100) ml/min/1.73 m(2). During a median follow-up of 2.5 years, 1411 participants experienced AKI. SGLT2i users had the lowest incidence rate of AKI, 18.3 [CI 95% 14.1–23.4] per 1000 person years, followed by GLP1-RA (22.5; 19.9–25.3) and DPP-4i (26.6; 25–28.2). The weighted 3-year absolute risk for AKI was 5.79% [3.63–8.52] in the SGLT2i group, compared with 7.03% [5.69–8.69] and 7.00% [6.43–7.58] in the GLP1-RA and DPP-4i groups, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio was 0.73 [CI 95% 0.45–1.16] for SGLT2i vs. DPP-4i, and 0.98 [CI 95% 0.82–1.18] for GLP1-RA vs. DPP-4i. CONCLUSION: This study of routine care patients initiating novel glucose-lowering drugs showed similar occurrence of AKI between therapies, and suggests lower risk for SGLT2i. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40620-022-01505-8.