Acute effects of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, exenatide, on blood pressure and heart rate responses to intraduodenal glucose infusion in type 2 diabetes

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Exenatide in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To evaluate the effects of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, exenatide, on blood pressure and heart rate during an intraduodenal glucose infusion in type 2 diabetes.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Nine subjects with type 2 diabetes were randomised to receive intravenous exenatide or saline control in a crossover design.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exenatide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Exenatide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Each person switched between Exenatide and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Glucose (3 kcal min-1) was infused via an intraduodenal manometry catheter for 60 min.

Blood pressure, heart rate, and the frequency and amplitude of duodenal pressure waves were measured at regular intervals.

Gastrointestinal symptoms were monitored using 100 mm visual analogue scales.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arterial Pressure, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Duodenum, Exenatide, Gastrointestinal Motility and Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor.

Author keywords: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, postprandial hypotension and ‘gut–heart axis’.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and crossover study of Exenatide in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2017 (Diabetes & vascular disease research), a journal based in England.

More context: the Exenatide compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.