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Iron deficiency is prevalent in over 50% of heart failure patients, leading to worsened symptoms, reduced quality of life, and compromised exercise capacity.
A recent Duke Health-led study, in collaboration with global researchers, reveals that intravenous iron treatment offers a degree of relief for these patients, albeit with intricate outcomes.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress on Aug. 26, the study delves into the efficacy of ferric carboxymaltose, an intravenous drug. This comprehensive evaluation encompassed mortality rates, heart failure hospitalizations, and exercise capacity across more than 3,000 global participants over 12 months.
While the outcomes fell short of the study’s stringent statistical thresholds, intriguingly, the therapy showcased promising numerical enhancements in mortality, heart failure hospitalizations, and exercise capacity. Furthermore, the researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis by pooling results from two earlier studies involving ferric carboxymaltose in heart failure, providing a more holistic understanding of the available data.
“In the broader review using all three studies, we saw a 14% reduction in cardiovascular deaths and total cardiovascular hospitalizations and a 12% reduction in cardiovascular death or cardiac infarction hospitalization events overall across data from more than 4,500 participants collectively,” said Robert Mentz, M.D., corresponding author of the study, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, and member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
“As a practicing heart failure cardiologist, I have felt comfortable prescribing intravenous iron for patients with cardiac infarction prior to this study given the known benefits on improvement in quality of life and exercise capacity,” Mentz said. “Now that we have these results, we have important additional data that show this therapy has potential benefits on clinical outcomes, which could help a broad group of patients with heart failure and iron deficiency across the globe.”
The Daiichi Sankyo Group Company American Regent, Inc., which produces ferric carboxymaltose, provided funding for the study.
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