Mounjaro, Zepbound May Lower Death Risk for People With Serious Heart Conditions, New Research Shows

Weight loss drugs that contain tirzepatide — sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound — can significantly lower heart-related dangers for people with serious heart conditions, according to new research.

Findings from two studies suggest that these GLP-1 medications may reduce heart risks for patients who undergo a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and for people with obesity who receive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

Researchers presented their results at the SCAI 2026 Scientific Sessions & CAIC-ACCI Summit in Montreal, held from April 23 to 25. The studies have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Doctors typically prescribe tirzepatide medications to treat type 2 diabetes.

According to a news release about the two studies, tirzepatide’s ability to control blood sugar and encourage weight loss provides “meaningful cardiovascular benefits.” Earlier research has already shown these benefits, but scientists had not yet studied how these drugs affect patients undergoing heart procedures.

In one major finding, researchers discovered that participants who took tirzepatide and had a PCI procedure faced a 62% lower risk of death.

“GLP-1 agonists represent an important evolution in cardiometabolic care,” said Dr. Srihari Naidu, president of SCAI and an interventional cardiologist, in the news release. “Clinicians already recognize the benefits of glycemic control and weight reduction, but we are now beginning to understand how these therapies can improve outcomes in patients undergoing transcatheter cardiovascular interventions.”

Experts who were not part of the new studies say the results back up earlier findings on the heart benefits of weight loss drugs.

“These findings are consistent with what we are seeing broadly that medications like tirzepatide are not just weight loss drugs but have meaningful cardiometabolic benefits,” said Dr. Kevin Shah, a cardiologist and program director of Heart Failure Outreach at MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at Long Beach Medical Center. “We do need prospective studies to validate the findings from these analyses.”

Tirzepatide lowers stroke, heart attack risk

In the first study, researchers from John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago used the TriNetX database. They looked at adults with type 2 diabetes who were taking either tirzepatide drugs or older medications containing dulaglutide at the time of their PCI procedure.

The researchers did not compare tirzepatide drugs with medications that contain semaglutide, such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

In total, the team examined medical records for 1,281 study participants. One month after PCI, they reported that people using tirzepatide had lower rates of major adverse cardiovascular events, including acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and ventricular arrhythmias.

They noted no difference in stroke rates between those taking tirzepatide and those taking dulaglutide.

One year after PCI, researchers saw continued reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events, heart attacks, and worsening heart failure. They also found further reductions in death, stroke, and cardiac arrest at the one-year mark.

“The study adds on additional data to what we’ve already previously known about GLP-1 containing agents: these drugs hope to reduce risk for cardiovascular complications from obesity,” said Dr. Yu-Ming Ni, a cardiologist and lipidologist at MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA. Ni was not involved in the study.

“This patient population in this study is automatically higher risk because they need an intervention for their conditions,” Ni told Healthline. “Consequently, seeing a reduction in risk of cardiovascular events is promising, albeit not surprising.”

Dr. Jackie DesJardin, a cardiologist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco’s Division of Cardiology, cautioned that factors beyond the drugs may be at play. DesJardin was not involved in the study.

“The dramatic reductions seen here, more than 50% lower heart attack risk within just one month, are simply too large to be explained by the drug alone,” she told Healthline.

“Tirzepatide is new and expensive, and the patients who receive it tend to be more affluent and better connected to care. Despite the author’s best attempts to adjust for these factors, these socioeconomic differences could easily be driving some of the differences in outcomes,” she noted.

Tirzepatide lowers risk of major cardiovascular events

In a second study, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Houston used the TriNetX database to find adults with obesity who had TAVR between January 2020 and January 2025. They divided participants into two groups: those prescribed tirzepatide and those who were not.

According to a news release, participants who did not receive tirzepatide “experienced worse outcomes over time, with lower event-free survival.”

The researchers said people who did not take tirzepatide also had a 54% higher risk of being hospitalized for acute heart failure.

They added that patients not taking tirzepatide experienced major adverse cardiovascular events 44% more often.

However, researchers noted no significant differences between the groups in rates of ischemic stroke, heart attack, or acute kidney injury.

Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, said this new research offers helpful information for doctors. Chen was not involved in the studies.

“These results add to our rapidly growing evidence of the beneficial effects of GLP-1 agonists across a broad range of cardiometabolic conditions,” he told Healthline.

Heart health benefits of GLP-1 drugs

Recent research has shown that weight loss medications containing tirzepatide or semaglutide offer many health benefits.

An August 2025 study reported that both types of GLP-1 drugs can lower the risk of hospitalization and death in people with a common type of heart failure.

A February 2026 study stated that the pill version of the semaglutide drug Wegovy can help reduce heart failure risk for people with type 2 diabetes.

Experts say the heart health benefits of GLP-1 drugs come from their ability to help people lose weight and control blood sugar, along with other factors.

“GLP1 agents such as semaglutide and tirzepatide promote weight loss, reduce insulin resistance, and reduce liver fat,” said Ni. “All of these biological improvements have been shown to [reduce] the risk for heart disease.”

“Improperly controlled diabetes can hurt the heart in many ways,” said Chen. “Excess blood sugar increases inflammation in the blood vessel walls, leading to plaque buildup, which can cause heart attacks and heart muscle damage. The excess blood sugar can also lead to dysfunction of the heart muscle directly and cause it to become stiffer and pump blood less efficiently.”

“Tirzepatide works by mimicking two natural gut hormones that are released after eating, leading to more weight loss and better control of the major drivers of cardiovascular disease: blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol,” added DesJardin.

“There is also emerging evidence that these medications may have direct effects on