HFSA: Emphasizing "acute" in acute decompensated heart failure

Currently, vasodilator treatment is limited to standard agents such as intravenous nitroglycerin, but Dr. O’Connor shared the hope that sometime soon a new vasodilator may be shown effective for acutely decompensated patients. He is a coinvestigator on the TRUE-AHF study of ularitide. “We hope that these new vasodilators, ularitide and serelaxin, will be good complements to diuretics, he said. Dr. O’Connor also recommended that clinicians shy away from using ultrafiltration as a back-up therapy, believing that it was shown ineffective and potentially harmful in results from the CARRESS-HF trial (N Engl J Med 2012 Dec 13;367[24]:2296-304).

But not all heart failure specialists see acute heart failure as a new frontier for early treatment and new drug discovery.

^{Mitchel L. Zoler/Frontline Medical News}

Dr. Clyde W. Yancy

“So much energy has already been spent on acute heart failure with very little return,” said Dr. Clyde W. Yancy, professor and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University in Chicago. “I think that our best opportunities in heart failure are in prevention and in better chronic care. The hospitalized patient is so broad and complex; if we’re looking at how to best spend our resources I think it’s best to focus on prevention,” he said in an interview.

“The hospital experience needs to shift toward better use of systems of care and focus less on the biology. The biggest challenge is how to coordinate all the systems to make sure that patients have access to the resources and can obtain [existing] medications. Patients don’t often have the literacy to understand discharge instructions, and our systems are overwhelmed by trying to have 7-day follow-up visits. Focusing on management of the hospitalized patient does not give us a good return on the investment. There is no question that acute heart failure is an unmet need, but the greater unmet need is prevention and improved chronic care. No single intervention will dramatically change the acute heart failure experience. Focusing on the hospitalization does not offer us management opportunities that are as robust as we once thought,” Dr. Yancy said.

Dr. Packer has been a consultant to 22 companies. Dr. Ponikowski has been a consultant to, speaker for, or has received research grants from 11 companies. Dr. Mebazaa has received speaking honoraria and consulting fees from 11 companies. Dr. Jessup, Dr. Costanzo, and Dr. Yancy had no disclosures. Dr. O’Connor has been a consultant to ResMed, Roche Diagnostics, Cardiorentis, Bayer, and Actelion and has received research grants from Otsuka, ResMed, and Roche Diagnostics.

mzoler@frontlinemedcom.com

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