Lancet: Drug combination may help prevent heart failure

June 3, 2020 /
BiovalleyBIOON// -- Many heart failure patients may live several more years if they take multiple new drugs at the same time, a study suggestsresearchers estimate that giving some heart failure patients a four-drug combination of treatments, including three recently proven effective treatments, could give them an extra six years to live than the treatments they typically usethe findings were recently published in the medical journal The Lancet, but were only predictions, not guaranteesHowever, DrMuthiah Vaduganathan, lead author of the study and a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said their study did provide strong evidence for cocktail therapy"The combination of these four drugs is expected to keep patients away from the hospital and live longer," he saidimage source: https://cn.bing.com
Heart failure is a chronic disease in which the heart muscle sits unable to pump blood effectively to meet the body's needs, leading to symptoms including fatigue, dyspnea and swelling of the legsthe new study focuses on patients with heart failure and lower blood score, which is the amount of blood the heart drains each time it contractsAbout half of heart failure patients are affected by lower blood-semia scoresfor a long time, the standard drug treatment regimen for these patients has been the use of beta inhibitors plus ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (Absolutin II) inhibitors (Absolutin II)These three drugs use different mechanisms to lower blood pressure and reduce heart loadbut recent clinical trialshave found that, in addition to standard drugs, there are three drugs that can help patients live longer a drug called Entresto, which combines ARB satanand with another drug, sacubitril The other is the diabetes drug, dapagliflozin, farxiga, which has recently been shown to be beneficial to heart failure patients with or without diabetes third drug is actually an ancient drug: adrenal corticosteroid receptor antagonists, including striatron and epliserone They help control blood pressure by blocking a hormone called aldosterone Despite these positive findings, many doctors still don't prescribe drugs to treat heart failure, said Vaduganathan And there is little evidence of what happens if patients use all three drugs at the same time "The best combination has not been studied," said Vaduganathan "
so his team tried to estimate the benefits of combining new therapies over the years To do this, they combed short-term data three large clinical trials Then they made some predictions: What would happen if the patient started taking receptor blockers and three drugs instead of an giocacanic conversion enzyme or antiretroviral drugs and stuck with the treatment for a long time? researchers estimate that for a 55-year-old, this means six more years of living and no hospitalization for heart failure for eight years for an 80-year-old, benefits are small, but still important -- an average of one more year of living and nearly three years less hospital stays , says Dr Mary Norine Walsh, former president of the American College of Cardiology, that in an "ideal world" all eligible patients would need medication "but the problem is," she added "Two of these drugs are not generics "
so many patients may not be able to afford expensive drugs, even if they have insurance According to an online search, 30 Farxigas cost about $500, while 60 Entrestosto costs about $600 not all patients should take their medicine except for the cost Walsh, who was not involved in the study, stressed that the findings were only available in patients with impaired blood-stoset function, but did not take into account the other half of heart failure patients she said any patient could have other health problems that could include a contraindication of a given drug Walsh said: "There may be a reason not to take medication But that shouldnot prevent patients from asking doctors questions specifically, she said, patients who are still taking ACE inhibitors or ACBs can ask their doctor why they didn't switch to Entresto, which is the first choice Vaduganathan noted that the diabetes drug, Farxiga, was only approved to treat heart failure with lower blood score Therefore, it is not included in the treatment guidelines the study was not funded, the researchers reported that they were linked to various pharmaceutical companies that make heart failure drugs (biovalleybioon.com) reference: Drug combos may be advance sanst heart
estimating life benefits of comprehensive disease-modifying pharmacing therapies in patients with heart with heart with the disease ded in the : a comparative analysis of the threeiseded trials The Lancet 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736 (20) 30748-0