Empagliflozin reduced heart chamber volumes alongside other drugs
Over 36 weeks, empagliflozin reduced the heart’s main pumping chamber’s volume after contraction by 6.0 milliliters per square meter of body surface area versus placebo.
Limit: Only 36 patients were receiving an ARNI and 63 were receiving an MRA
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A randomized trial studied 105 people with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. In this form of heart failure, the heart pumps out a lower-than-normal share of its blood with each beat. Participants received empagliflozin or placebo, and researchers assessed changes over 36 weeks.
This analysis asked whether existing use of either of two other recommended heart failure drug types altered empagliflozin’s effects. Compared with placebo, empagliflozin reduced the volume of the heart’s main pumping chamber both after contraction and after filling. The researchers reported reductions even when empagliflozin was added to either background drug type. A measure of how the heart muscle shortened during pumping showed no significant overall change.
Why it matters
For people aging with heart failure, the study addressed whether an added medicine could still affect heart structure alongside recommended therapy.
Caveats
This small subgroup analysis did not establish that effects were identical across background therapies, and reduced heart volume does not establish a survival benefit. The congress abstract gave no adverse-event results; participants all had reduced pumping function and diabetes or prediabetes.
