Sitagliptin pretreatment in diabetes patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome: results from the Acute Coronary Syndrome Israeli Survey (ACSIS)

BACKGROUND: Chronic treatment with currently available oral hypoglyemic medications may result in a differential effect on the clinical presentation of diabetic patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS: We evaluated presentation characteristics and the risk for in-hospital complications and 30-day major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) among 445 patients with diabetes mellitus enrolled in the Acute Coronary Syndrome Israeli Survey (ACSIS) 2010. Patients were categorized into 3 groups according to glucose lowering medications at time of admission for ACS: 1) DPP 4 inhibitors (as monotherapy or in combination; DPP4i), 2) Metformin (monotherapy or in combination, excluding DPP4i) and 3) other oral hypoglycemics. RESULTS: Patients in the DPP4i group displayed similar baseline clinical characteristics to the other 2 groups, with the exception of a younger age and a lower frequency of prior coronary heart disease and chronic renal failure. Medical therapy with DPP4i was associated with a significantly lower in-hospital complication rate (post MI angina, re-infarction, pulmonary edema, infections, acute renal failure and better KILLIP class) (9.7%), lower rates of 30-day MACE (12.9%) and a shorter hospital stay (5.4 ± 3.8 days) as compared with patients treated with metformin (24.4%, 31.6% and 5.6 ± 5.0 days respectively) or other oral hypoglycemic drugs (45.5%, 48.5% and 7.5 ± 6.5 days respectively). Consistently, multivariate logistic regression modeling revealed that treatment with DPP4i was associated with a lower risk for in-hospital complications (OR = 0.129, p = 0.002) and 30-day MACE (OR = 0.157, p = 0.002) compared with other oral hypoglycaemic therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that chronic treatment with DPP4i may have cardioprotective effects in diabetes patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome.