Antidiabetic drugs for stroke prevention in patients with type-2 diabetes. The neurologist's point of view.

To date, stroke prevention in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) has been based on the control of other risk factors and comorbidities, as clinical trials aimed at intensive glycemic control have failed to prove the existence of any sort of benefit in reducing macrovascular complications. However, thanks to the FDA's requirement to evaluate the vascular risk of antidiabetic drugs, there has been significant progress in the knowledge of their benefits on the risk of vascular death, acute myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke in patients with type 2 DM and high vascular risk. This implies the need to incorporate these drugs into the overall vascular prevention strategy in patients with DM who have already suffered a stroke. This manuscript is a critical, non-systematic review on the oral antidiabetics that have demonstrated any sort of effect on stroke risk, interpreting the results of the main clinical trials from the neurologist's point of view.