Angiotensin receptor blockers significantly reduce hemoglobin level in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus not suffered chronic cardiac failure and chronic kidney disease.

Anemia due to angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) therapy has been previously reported in patients with diabetes mellitus with glomerular filtration rates of <60 mL min-1/1.73 m2. However, whether Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) receiving ARB therapy for chronic cardiac failure and chronic kidney disease develop reduced hemoglobin (Hb) levels has not been elucidated. Thus, this cross-sectional study was conducted, and Hb levels were compared between patients with T2DM with and without ARB administration. No significant difference in the prescribed proportion of antidiabetic medicines such as biguanide, sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, and α-glucosidase inhibitors was found between the group treated with ARBs and the group without ARBs. Thus, we considered that the effects of antidiabetic medicines on the results were minimum. In this study, the Hb levels of patients who received ARBs (13.8 ± 1.7 g/dL) were significantly lower than those of patients without ARBs (14.9 ± 1.35 g/dL) (p = 0.034). The difference between this study and a previous study relies on eGFR levels. Thus, the eGFR levels of the patients in this study and the previous study were above 60 and below 60 mL min-1/1.73 m2, respectively. Despite those differences, both studies showed that the use of ARBs was associated with a decrease in Hb levels in patients with T2DM. Thus, the evaluation of glycated Hb levels should be focused on whether ARBs are prescribed for patients with T2DM.