The other retrospective cohort study [18], involving 39,225 patients and with a median follow-up of 3.5 years, found that both exenatide and exenatide plus insulin were associated with a lower risk of heart failure versus insulin alone (adjusted HR 0.34, 95 % CI 0.22 to 0.52; adjusted HR 0.40, 95 % CI 0.32 to 0.50, respectively, Fig. 3). Here, INS is linked to heart failure.