Heart failure

Initiating metformin following hospitalization for heart failure may reduce the risk for death or further HHF in older people with comorbid diabetes, but only if they have a preserved ejection fraction, study findings indicate.

Empagliflozin treatment produces significant reductions in the risk for a broad range of inpatient and outpatient heart failure outcomes in people with a preserved ejection fraction, shows further analysis of EMPEROR-Preserved.

The EMPEROR-Reduced investigators have revealed that empagliflozin provides significant protection against cardiovascular death and heart failure in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, with or without diabetes.

Patients with type 2 diabetes and established atherosclerotic disease who are treated with the SGLT2 inhibitor ertugliflozin have a similar risk for major adverse cardiovascular events to those given placebo, shows the VERTIS-CV trial.

Follow-up of patients after heart transplant reveals rapid cardiomyocyte lipid accumulation, a probable forerunner of diabetic cardiomyopathy, in those with pre-existing type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes is a stronger risk factor for heart failure among women compared with men, indicate the results of a large systematic review and meta-analysis.

Minor increases in high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T levels may represent an early biochemical signature of subclinical heart disease, researchers report.

Diabetes is associated with poor prognosis among patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction, study results suggest.

Researchers report that patients with severe aortic stenosis who have a shorter life expectancy or place a low value on the risk of long-term valve degeneration may have more to gain from transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation than surgical replacement.

The increased risk of heart failure associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs varies between drugs and according to dose, study findings show.

Prophylactic implantable cardioverter–defibrillator use does not reduce long-term mortality in patients with symptomatic heart failure not caused by coronary artery disease, Danish research shows.

Sacubitril–valsartan is cost-effective for the reduction of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in patients with New York Heart Association class II to IV heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, US study findings indicate.

Technetium 99m pyrophosphate planar cardiac imaging accurately differentiates transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis from other amyloid conditions and may also predict survival, US researchers report.

Less than a quarter of heart failure (HF) patients eligible for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator counselling actually receive it, with the rates even lower in women and ethnic minority patients, an observational analysis of the Get With The Guidelines-HF Program shows.

The glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist liraglutide does not improve clinical stability in patients recently hospitalised with advanced heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, US researchers report.

The causes of high-output heart failure have changed over time, say Mayo Clinic researchers.

Tests for ischaemic coronary artery disease are badly underutilised in patients with new-onset heart failure, research shows.

Recovery from a reduced ejection fraction appears to be a predictor of good outcomes in patients with heart failure, a retrospective analysis shows.

Both heart failure and reduced ejection fraction influence the outcomes of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, say researchers. 

Myocardial infarction survivors who have heart failure are more likely to develop cancer than their heart failure-free counterparts, indicates research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.