Triglyceride-lowering therapy for the prevention of cardiovascular events, stroke, and mortality in patients with diabetes: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background and aims Triglyceride (TG)-lowering therapy is efficient for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population; however, for diabetic individuals, it is more controversial. The purpose of this study was to pool the results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to clarify whether the lowering of TG is beneficial for the prevention of CVD events, stroke, and mortality in subjects with diabetes. Methods MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials were searched to identify the relevant literature. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the association of triglyceride-lowering therapy with the prevention of CVD events, stroke, and mortality in diabetic patients. Results Overall, 19 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with the control groups, TG lowering was associated with a decreased risk of CVD events (RR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.87–0.95, p = 0.000) and CVD mortality (RR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.86–1.00, p = 0.047). There was no significant correlation between TG-lowering therapy and the incidence of stroke and all-cause mortality (RR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.86–1.02, p = 0.129 and RR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.93–1.01, p = 0.107, respectively). Subgroup analysis showed that the decreased CVD risk resulting from TG-lowering therapy was independent of age, sex, region, duration of follow-up, degree of TG reduction and glycemic control. Conclusions TG-lowering therapy is associated with a reduction in CVD events and cardiovascular-specific mortality, but not in stroke and all-cause mortality. Future large, multicenter RCTs will further confirm these conclusions.