Liraglutide improved a combined heart failure outcome
A ranked comparison of death, heart failure hospitalizations and quality of life favored liraglutide over standard care, with a win ratio of 1.36 over 30 months.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
The randomized trial enrolled 590 people with obesity and chronic heart failure with reduced pumping ability. Their mean age was 64; 68% were men. All received optimized heart failure medicines; one group also received liraglutide, targeting 1.8 mg daily for 30 months.
Heart failure hospitalizations occurred in 19.7% with liraglutide versus 27.5% with standard care over 30 months. Death rates were similar: 12.5% versus 13.6%. Quality-of-life scores improved by 5.8 points with liraglutide. The drug increased heart rate by 5.2 beats per minute. Forty-eight liraglutide recipients (16.3%) had an abnormally fast heartbeat arising from the heart’s usual pacemaker. Added medication controlled this in 92.7%. No abnormal rhythms originating in the heart’s lower chambers occurred.
Why it matters
For heart failure in later life, quality of life and hospital stays matter alongside survival. The trial addressed whether adding liraglutide to existing medicines could improve that balance in people with obesity.
Caveats
This single-center, single-blind trial was reported as a conference abstract, limiting the detail available for assessment. It enrolled only people with a body mass index of at least 32 and reduced heart pumping ability, so the findings do not cover all people with heart failure.
The paper
Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS); Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia Ignacio Chavez
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
