[Evidence-based reduction of cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes].

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus exhibit a markedly increased propensity to develop cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction, stroke and heart failure. The results from large cardiovascular outcome trials conducted in recent years with novel hypoglycemic agents, such as dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, sodium-glucose transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists have led to novel therapeutic strategies to reduce the cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes. This overview article summarizes the evidence derived from these trials for the various substances. It also discusses the resulting treatment algorithms that have been brought together in the recently published European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines on the topic of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.