Heart Failure Society of America 2019: Virtual Visits, Spironolactone Issues, and Reasons to Worry

The 2019 Heart Failure Society of America Scientific Meeting (HFSA 2019) in Philadelphia has wrapped up. DocWire News was there, and reports here on some interesting research from the meeting.

The ViV-HF Study

While the results were not statistically significant, the ViV-HF study was an interesting attempt to quantify the real-world impact of virtual visits (compared to in-person clinical visits) on appointment no-show rates in a population of heart failure patients who were transitioning from hospital to home.

About Spironolactone and Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction…

Spironolactone, a commonly used therapy in heart failure patients, carries with is some issues. Two of these were explored in different studies. One study looked at the use of spironolactone in older patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and a link between increased adverse events. The other study focused on a subset of patients with HFpEF and chronic kidney disease with resistant hypertension, who were assigned a companion therapy to help increase adherence to spironolactone.

A Worrying Trend in Heart Failure Burden

A new analysis finds that the total overall heart failure burden among black adults in the United States is increasing. It also reports that persistent disparities in the burdens between white adults and black adults persists. The analysis included data on more than 20,000 participants from the National Health and Nutritional Survey (NHANES). ““While the increased odds of HF was attenuated after adjusting for risk factors and socioeconomic status, disparities persisted and have widened over time,” the researchers noted.

SGLT-2 Inhibitors Don’t Improve LV Reverse Remodeling

In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, the inhibition of SGLT-2 was not associated with improvements in left ventricular (LV) reverse remodeling, an abstract from the meeting reported. “Although SGLT-2 inhibitors have shown in the metabolic model to improve heart failure in diabetic patients, they did not show a potential role in the improvement of LV reverse remodeling,” the authors concluded.