Semaglutide, central retinal thickness and continuous glucose monitoring in persons with type 2 diabetes: A post-hoc analysis from a randomised trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Semaglutide.

In some, but not all studies, semaglutide is speculated to worsen DR, but the mechanism is unknown.

Central retinal thickness (CRT) is an early marker of DR.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 120 participants taking part.

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

Forty participants with type 2 diabetes were included in this post-hoc analysis of a 32-week randomised, placebo-controlled, partly open-label trial investigating the separate and combined effects of semaglutide and empagliflozin on target organ damage in 120 participants with type 2 diabetes.

In the present study, 10 participants from each of the 4 arms participated.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, open-label and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Semaglutide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Everyone knew when Semaglutide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Semaglutide could be set against what happens without it.

Individuals were randomised into four groups: i) semaglutide, ii) empagliflozin, iii) the combination or iv) placebo, n = 30 for each group).

TIR was assessed using Continuous Glucose Measurement for 7-8 days and CRT was assessed using ocular coherence tomography.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Glucagon-Like Peptides, Diabetic Retinopathy, Retina, Blood Glucose, Hypoglycemic Agents and Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Continuous glucose monitoring, Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist and Type 2 diabetes.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and placebo-controlled study of Semaglutide in 120 participants.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2025 (Journal of diabetes and its complications), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Semaglutide compound page, all human trials.