GLP-1 Evidence

Evidence map

Cardiovascular: what the evidence base looks like

10 publications, 3 of them trials and 6 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 4 min read 10 citations

What the evidence on cardiovascular is made of Of 10 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 6 meta-analysis, 3 randomised trial, 1 other. 631meta-analysis (6)randomised trial (3)other (1)
10 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

The synthesis is ahead of the primary literature here — reviews and meta-analyses drawing on a modest number of underlying studies. Treat confident conclusions with the caution the sample size deserves.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the cardiovascular literature was published Publication years for the 10 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. 2023 onwards6 papers2015-20193 papers2020-20221 papers
Still active. The most recent paper here is from 2025, so this is a field where an answer written today may not hold for long. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Kidney and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Patients With CKD Receiving GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials — Chen JY, Hsu TW, Liu JH et al., 2025, meta-analysis
  2. Semaglutide effects on safety and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with overweight or obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis — Cleto AS, Schirlo JM, Beltrame M et al., 2025, meta-analysis
  3. Efficacy and safety of SGLT2 inhibitors with and without glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists: a SMART-C collaborative meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials00155-4) — Apperloo EM, Neuen BL, Fletcher RA et al., 2024, meta-analysis
  4. Tirzepatide cardiovascular event risk assessment: a pre-specified meta-analysis — Sattar N, McGuire DK, Pavo I et al., 2022, meta-analysis
  5. Cardiovascular, mortality, and kidney outcomes with GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cardiovascular outcome trials30249-9) — Kristensen SL, Rørth R, Jhund PS et al., 2019, meta-analysis
  6. Cardiovascular outcomes with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis30412-6) — Bethel MA, Patel RA, Merrill P et al., 2018, meta-analysis
  7. Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with obesity and prevalent heart failure: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial01498-3) — Deanfield J, Verma S, Scirica BM et al., 2024, randomised controlled trial
  8. Dulaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes (REWIND): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial31149-3) — Gerstein HC, Colhoun HM, Dagenais GR et al., 2019, randomised controlled trial
  9. Comparison of tirzepatide and dulaglutide on major adverse cardiovascular events in participants with type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: SURPASS-CVOT design and baseline characteristics — Nicholls SJ, Bhatt DL, Buse JB et al., 2024, clinical trial
  10. New Drug: Tirzepatide (Mounjaro(™)) — Gettman L, 2023, journal article
How much research is there on cardiovascular?
10 publications are indexed here, of which 3 are trials and 6 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2025. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Semaglutide effects on safety and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with overweight or obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis Cleto AS, Schirlo JM, Beltrame M, et al. · International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 39396098
  2. Kidney and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Patients With CKD Receiving GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials Chen JY, Hsu TW, Liu JH, et al. · American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation · 2025 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 39863261
  3. Efficacy and safety of SGLT2 inhibitors with and without glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists: a SMART-C collaborative meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials Apperloo EM, Neuen BL, Fletcher RA, et al. · The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2024 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 38991584
  4. Tirzepatide cardiovascular event risk assessment: a pre-specified meta-analysis Sattar N, McGuire DK, Pavo I, et al. · Nature medicine · 2022 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 35210595Full text
  5. Cardiovascular, mortality, and kidney outcomes with GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cardiovascular outcome trials Kristensen SL, Rørth R, Jhund PS, et al. · The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2019 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 31422062
  6. Cardiovascular outcomes with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis Bethel MA, Patel RA, Merrill P, et al. · The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2018 · Meta-analysis DOIPubMed 29221659
  7. Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with obesity and prevalent heart failure: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial Deanfield J, Verma S, Scirica BM, et al. · Lancet (London, England) · 2024 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 39181597
  8. Dulaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes (REWIND): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial Gerstein HC, Colhoun HM, Dagenais GR, et al. · Lancet (London, England) · 2019 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 31189511
  9. Comparison of tirzepatide and dulaglutide on major adverse cardiovascular events in participants with type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: SURPASS-CVOT design and baseline characteristics Nicholls SJ, Bhatt DL, Buse JB, et al. · American heart journal · 2024 · Clinical trial DOIPubMed 37758044
  10. New Drug: Tirzepatide (Mounjaro(™)) Gettman L · The Senior care pharmacist · 2023 · Journal article DOIPubMed 36751934