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Review
Review
Acarbose: safe and effective for lowering postprandial hyperglycaemia and improving cardiovascular outcomes
  1. James J DiNicolantonio1,
  2. Jaikrit Bhutani2 and
  3. James H O'Keefe1
  1. 1Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
  2. 2Pt BD Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr James J DiNicolantonio; jjdinicol{at}gmail.com

Abstract

α-Glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) are a class of oral glucose-lowering drugs used exclusively for treatment or prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus. AGIs act by altering the intestinal absorption of carbohydrates through inhibition of their conversion into simple sugars (monosaccharides) and thus decrease the bioavailability of carbohydrates in the body, significantly lowering blood glucose levels. The three AGIs used in clinical practice are acarbose, voglibose and miglitol. This review will focus on the cardiovascular properties of acarbose. The current available data suggest that AGIs (particularly acarbose) may be safe and effective for the treatment of prediabetes and diabetes.

  • acarbose
  • alpha-glucosidase
  • type 2 diabetes

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2015-000327

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