Background: Empagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor used in the treatment of human heart failure patients. This drug could have applications in veterinary cardiology, but pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic information on empagliflozin in healthy dogs has not been published.Hypothesis/
Objectives: A single oral dose of empagliflozin at a target dosage of 0.3 mg/kg given to healthy dogs will result in significant changes in quantitative urine glucose and serum β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) concentrations.Animals: Six healthy, privately-owned dogs.
Methods: Prospective study evaluating urinary glucose and serum BHBA concentrations at 0h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, and 72h after administration of 10 mg empagliflozin PO. Normally distributed data (Shapiro-Wilk test) for urine glucose concentrations were analyzed using repeated measures one-way ANOVA.
Results: Dosage administered was 0.28-0.45 mg/kg. Serum BHBA concentrations were below the normal canine reference range (< 200 umol/L) at all time points (Fig 1). Urine glucose concentrations showed significant (p< 0.0001) change throughout the study period (Fig 1) with peak excretion at 24h with a complete return to baseline by 72h.Conclusions and clinical importance – Empagliflozin 0.28-0.45 mg/kg PO produced measurable effects in urine glucose concentrations in healthy dogs and not in serum BHBA concentrations.
