Long-term cardio-renal outcomes investigating empagliflozin (Boehringer Ingelheim) on kidney disease progression (KDP) or cardiovascular death in patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease.

In this short interview, Prof William Herrington (Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK) discusses the findings from EMPA-KIDNEY (NCT03594110).

EMPA-KIDNEY is an international, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, where patients with chronic kidney disease at risk of KDP were randomized to receive a daily dose of either empagliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor, or placebo. 6,609 patients were enrolled in the trial and were followed up for two years. The primary outcome measure was the incidence rate of first occurrence of KDP or cardiovascular death. Surviving patients who consented were followed up for another two years post-trial to assess the cardio-renal effects after the discontinuation of empagliflozin.

Interview Questions:
1.    What is the reasoning behind the EMPA-KIDNEY trial?
2.    What was the study design and patient population?
3.    What were the key findings and any secondary findings of interest?
4.    What are the take-home messages for practice?
5.    What further research is needed in this area?

Recorded remotely from Oxford, 2024

Editors: Yazmin Sadik, Jordan Rance
Videographers: Oliver Miles

Support: This is an independent interview produced by Radcliffe CVRM.