Heart Failure Risk Related to Obesity reduced by Tirzepatide

Tirzepatide, a weight-loss and diabetes medicine, can lower the risk of death or worsening heart failure for individuals with heart failure, retained heart pump function, and obesity, according to new UVA Health research.

The medicine, developed by Eli Lilly and Company, was examined in the SUMMIT clinical study at 146 sites in the United States and worldwide. A total of 731 patients with diastolic heart failure and a BMI of 30 or above were randomly assigned to receive tirzepatide injections or a harmless placebo. The researchers subsequently followed the patients for a median of two years.

This class of drugs continue to show benefits far beyond weight loss. This drug will become an important part of the armamentarium for patients with obesity-related cariac failure and preserved heart function.”

Christopher Kramer, MD, researcher, chief of UVA Health’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Obesity and heart failure

Diastolic Cardiac failure, also known as heart failure with intact ejection fraction, occurs when the left ventricle of the heart stiffens and loses its ability to pump blood adequately. The form of failure accounts for roughly half of all heart failure patients. (Heart disease is the main cause of death in the United States, accounting for one in every five deaths, with someone dying every 33 seconds.)

Obesity is a key risk factor for Cardiac failure, so Kramer and his colleagues in the SUMMIT trial decided to investigate if tirzepatide, a weight-loss medicine previously approved by the FDA, could help.

The trial discovered that tirzepatide had significant benefits for controlling diastolic heart failure, lowering fatalities, preventing hospitalizations, and improving recipients’ overall health and quality of life. For example, participants saw improvements in their six-minute walk distance, as well as significant decreases in a biological indicator used to quantify inflammation and predict the risk of major cardiovascular events.

The tirzepatide group experienced gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea, which were typically mild or moderate, the researchers reported at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago on Saturday.

Tirzepatide findings

Kramer, a cardiovascular imager, also led a magnetic resonance imaging substudy to investigate how tirzepatide, offered under the brand name Zepbound, altered recipients’ heart anatomy and function. The researchers discovered positive reductions in both left ventricular mass (the weight of the heart) and the quantity of surrounding adipose tissue. The drop in LV mass was associated with a reduction in body weight as well as a decrease in left ventricular volumes.

“This drug is reversing the abnormal properties of the heart brought on by obesity,” Kramer said. “There is much more to these drugs than weight loss alone.”