Introduction Clinical data of esaxerenone in hypertensive patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) are lacking. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of esaxerenone in patients with DKD and an inadequate response to blood pressure (BP)-lowering treatment. Methods In this multicenter, open-label, prospective study, patients were divided into urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio subcohorts (UACR < 30, 30 to < 300, and 300 to < 1000 mg/gCr). Esaxerenone was initiated at 1.25 mg/day and followed by incremental dose escalation based on BP and serum potassium level monitoring. The treatment period was 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was change in morning home systolic BP/diastolic BP (SBP/DBP) from baseline to end of treatment (EOT). Secondary endpoints included achievement rate of target BP, change in UACR from baseline, and safety. Results In total, 113 patients were enrolled. Morning home SBP/DBP significantly decreased from baseline to EOT in the total population (− 11.6/− 5.2 mmHg, both p < 0.001) and in all UACR subcohorts (all p < 0.001). The target BP achievement rate was 38.5%. Significant reductions in bedtime home and office BPs were also shown in the total population and all UACR subcohorts. UACR significantly improved from baseline to EOT in the total (− 50.9%, p < 0.001) and all UACR subcohorts (all p < 0.001). Incidence of serum potassium elevation as drug-related treatment emergent adverse events was 2.7%. The change from baseline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was − 4.8 mL/min/1.73 m 2 . Conclusion Esaxerenone demonstrated a BP-lowering effect and improved albuminuria. The effects were consistent regardless of the severity of albuminuria without clinically relevant serum potassium elevation and eGFR reduction. Clinical Trial Registration jRCTs06119002. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12325-022-02294-z.

Intensive lipid-lowering therapy is recommended in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with target organ damage. However, evidence is insufficient to stratify the patients who will benefit from the intensive therapy among them. High visit-to-visit variability in systolic blood pressure (SBP) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events. Thus, we hypothesized that the benefit of intensive lipid-lowering therapy is larger in T2DM patients with high visit-to-visit SBP variability who are considered at higher risk. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of intensive versus standard statin therapy in primary prevention of cardiovascular events among T2DM patients with retinopathy stratified by visit-to-visit SBP variability. Design and method:The EMPATHY study was the first randomized trial comparing statin intensive therapy targeting low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) < 70 mg/dL and standard therapy targeting LDLC 100 to < 120 mg/dL in T2DM patients with retinopathy without known cardiovascular disease. Using this dataset, we divided the patients into two subpopulations based on standard deviation (SD) and average real variability (ARV) of clinic SBP within initial 6 months. The outcome was the composite incidence of cardiovascular events, including cardiac, cerebral, renal, and vascular events or death associated with cardiovascular events.