Article
Author(s):
The 5-year update could help solidify the role of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in treating heart failure, years after the first evidence of their effectiveness emerged.
Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors empagliflozin (Jardiance) and dapagliflozin (Farxiga) are now recommended for treatment of chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), according to the latest 5-year update of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines in acute and chronic heart failure, which were released early Friday during the ESC Congress 2021.
The ESC Congress, being held in a virtual format for the second year due to COVID-19, runs today through Monday.
ESC updates guidelines in various treatment areas on 5-year cycles and releases them throughout its annual Congress. Other updates scheduled this year are valvular heart disease (Saturday), cardiac pacing (Sunday), and cardiovascular disease prevention (Monday). The heart failure guidelines were simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal.
Chronic heart failure is a condition where the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly. It usually occurs because the heart has become too weak or stiff. Ejection fraction, which is the percentage of the blood within the ventricles that is ejected during the cardiac cycle, is the most important measure in heart failure.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HPpEF), also called diastolic heart failure, involves impaired relaxation of the left ventricle. Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), or systolic systolic heart failure, involves impaired contraction of the left ventricle.
HFpEF is on the rise in the United States and worldwide, given that its likelihood rises with age and high blood pressure. According to ESC, prevalence rises from 1% among those age 55 and under to more than 10% among those aged 70 and older. Symptoms include breathlessness, ankle swelling, and tiredness. Once diagnosed, patients are typically hospitalized once each year and 50% die within 5 years.
Heart failure is linked to hospitalization and has been a major source of rising health care costs; in 2014, the mean cost of a hospitalization was pegged at $11,552, with total costs nationwide estimated at $11 billion. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare developed systems of penalizing hospitals that readmitted too many patients for heart failure within 30 days of discharge, thus fueling the need for therapies to treat this condition.
The update recognizes that patients with heart failure typically have other conditions such as atrial fibrillation and valvular heart disease, and gives treatment recommendations. “It is crucial to treat the underlying causes of heart failure and its comorbidities,” said task force chairperson Marco Metra, MD, of the University of Brescia, Italy, in a statement. “Proper treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes, and coronary artery disease can prevent the development of heart failure. Atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, iron deficiency and other comorbidities frequently co-exist with heart failure and the adoption of specific treatments may have a major impact on the clinical course of our patients.”
The rise of SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure
Several evidence-based treatments have been developed to improve survival in HFrEF, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNIs), beta-blockers and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs). But in recent years, SGLT2 inhibitors, first introduced in 2013 to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D), have reshaped cardiometabolic care across diabetes, heart failure, and renal disease.
The 2015 EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, designed to meet FDA requirements for empagliflozin’s approval in T2D, stunned both the diabetes and cardiology community when the drug showed cardiovascular (CV) benefits, and soon separate trials in heart failure and renal disease were under way across the drug class.
Two of these trials were EMPEROR-Reduced and EMPEROR-Preserved, which examined empagliflozin in HFrEF and HFpEF, respectively. Both EMPEROR-Reduced and the DAPA-HF trial in dapagliflozin showed significant reductions in a composite of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization, leading to the new ESC guidelines.
Findings for EMPEROR-Preserved will be unveiled later Friday during the ESC Congress, and topline results suggest they will be significant. As noted during a press conference held ahead of the presentation on EMPEROR-Preserved, the latest heart failure guideline update could be outdated literally within hours. The 2021 ESC Guidelines state, “To date, no treatment has been shown to convincingly reduce mortality and morbidity in patients with HFpEF, although improvements have been seen for some specific phenotypes of patients within the overall HFpEF umbrella.”
“Every guideline we write is out of date a few days after it's published,” said Milton Packer, MD, of Baylor University Medical Center, who is presenting one of the studies on Friday.
Acknowledging that he was exaggerating a bit, Packer continued: “The guidelines are dynamic documents. They represent what we know at the time that they're written. And then new information comes out, and they have to be updated. And that takes time. It's a process and we all understand that process, there is no real concept of finality here. We do the best we can with the data we have.”
Changes from 2016
The ESC guidelines in heart failure were last updated in 2016. The authors highlight several concepts incorporated across the guidelines, including:
Therapies. The updated guidelines recommend empagliflozin, dapagliflozin, canagliflozin, ertugliflozin, and sotagliflozin for patients with T2D who are at risk of CV events “to reduce hospitalizations for HF, major CV events, end-stage renal dysfunction, and CV death.” Separately, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, and sotagliflozin were recommended for those with T2D and HFrEF to reduce hospitalizations for heart failure and CV death. Sotagliflozin, which is an SGLT1/2 inhibitor, has not yet been approved by FDA.
Of note, new Level 1 recommendations—which means there is evidence or general agreement that a treatment or procedure is beneficial, useful and effective—call for giving patients evidence-based oral medications, including SGLT2 inhibitors, before discharge from the hospital. Guidelines call for patients to be evaluated for congestion before they leave so that physicians can find optimal oral therapy regimens. Follow-up visits are recommended at 1 to 2 weeks to increase doses if necessary.
Strategies. Beyond the recommendations for the use of specific therapies, other updates—if embedded into clinical practice—could make a major impact on patient care. Additional Level 1 recommendations cover the following:
Reference
McDonagh TA, Metra M, Adamo M, Gardner RS. 2021 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure. Eur Heart J. 2021; [published online August 26, 2021]. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab368
SC Efgartigimod Shows Noninferiority to IV Formulation in gMG
From Criminalization to Compassion: The Evolution of HIV Laws