Heart Failure Patients With Normal Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction Don't Benefit From Treatment With Angiotensin II Recept...(ection fraction of under 35 percent Mas...),Health

Compared to patients with low ejection fraction heart failure, those with preserved ejection fraction are older, more often women and are more likely to have high blood pressure. In this study, more than a third of participants were over age 75 and investigators reported high blood pressure as a heart failure cause in 64 percent of patients. The average of their ejection fraction was 59 percent.

Earlier studies suggested that patients with preserved ejection fraction heart failure may fare better on ARBs or ACE inhibitors than on conventional treatment but their results were not statistically significant, said Peter E. Carson, M.D., co-principal investigator, associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University and chief of the coronary care unit of Washington Veterans Administration Medical Center in Washington D.C.

In I-PRESERVE the primary outcome - a composite of all-cause death, hospitalization for heart failure, heart attack, unstable angina, arrhythmia and stroke - occurred in 742 people in the irbesartan group and 763 in the placebo group, a difference that was not statistically significant. Two major secondary endpoints, cardiovascular death and death or hospitalization specifically due to heart failure, were also not different between the treatment and control groups.

I-PRESERVE researchers found that the ARB was safe and well-tolerated, indicating that it could be a substitute for patients unable to tolerate other high blood pressure drugs.

Co-authors are: Michael Komajda, M.D.; Robert McKelvie, M.D.; John JV McMurray, M.D.; Michael Zile, M.D.; Mark Donovan, Ph.D.; Christoph Staiger, M.D.; and Agata Ptaszyns
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