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Nityanand S, Pande I, Bajpai VK, Singh M, Chandra M, Singh BN. Platelets in essential hypertension. Thromb Res 1993: 72: 447–454. 30. Gkaliagkousi E, Douma S, Zamboulis C, Ferro A. Nitric oxide dysfunction in vascular endothelium and platelets: role in essential hypertension. J Hypertens 2009: 27: 2310–2320. 31. Kaya MG, Yarlioglues M, Gunebakmaz O, Güntürk E, Inanc T, Dogan A, et al. Platelet activation and inflammatory response in patients with non-dipper hypertension. Atherosclerosis 2010: 209: 278–282. AstraZenecas diabetes drug first to lower fatality in all forms of heart failure In a pre-specified pooled analysis from AstraZeneca’s phase III trial of the diabetes drug Farxiga (dapagliflozin) in patients with heart failure (HF), the medication proved to be the first HF drug to demonstrate mortality benefits for all forms of HF. HF affects about 64 million people worldwide and is associated with significant health problems and risk of death, and is the leading cause of hospitalisation for people 65 years and older, reports BioSpace. The company presented the results at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2022 in Barcelona in August, while simultaneously publishing it in Nature Medicine. The data demonstrated a drop in risk of cardiovascular (CV) death across pre-specified subgroups, with a mortality benefit with a HF therapeutic in patients with HF across the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) range. Farxiga is a first-in-class, oral, once-daily SGLT2 inhibitor, a class of drugs originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. However, the class has demonstrated benefits to patients with chronic kidney and heart disease and helps prevent heart attacks. ‘In this patient-level meta-analysis including more than 11 000 patients with heart failure across the full range of ejection fraction, dapagliflozin reduced the risk of both cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalisation,’ said Dr John McMurray, professor of Medical Cardiology and deputy director of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow. ‘These results underpin the valuable role dapagliflozin can play in clinical practice, as we can initiate treatment right away while waiting for ejection fraction to be measured.’ In the pooled analysis, the drug reduced the risk of CV death by 14%, with an absolute risk reduction over the median follow up of 22 months. It decreased death from any cause by 10% and cut total hospitalisation – first and repeat – for HF by 29%. continued on page 334…
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