Key Takeaways:
- A recently licenced heart failure treatment that uses a chemical originally developed to treat diabetes people may help improve results.
- The ejection fraction (EF) is a percentage that indicates how much blood the heart pumps with each heartbeat.
- The therapy has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and certain European countries.
According to a Manitoba specialist, a newly approved heart failure medication that employs a drug initially intended to treat diabetic patients could improve outcomes for Canadians while lowering demand on healthcare systems.
Empagliflozin is the name of the medicine in dispute. According to cardiologist Dr. Shelley Zieroth, who headed a clinical trial for the medication at St. Boniface Hospital, it is known as an SGLT2 inhibitor. It has been proved useful as a blood-glucose-lowering drug in people with type 2 diabetes.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime clinical experiment.” It addressed one of the most pressing unmet needs in cardiovascular medicine: evidence-based treatment for individuals with heart failure,” Zieroth explained.
“It’s the first therapeutic for heart failure that has shown benefit over a spectrum of ejection fraction,” Zieroth explained.
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Ejection fraction (EF) is a percentage that represents how much blood is pumped by the heart with each heartbeat. A lowered EF implies that the heart isn’t pumping at full capacity, but a preserved EF, according to Zieroth, is a sort of heart failure in which the heart’s pumping function is normal, but the heart itself is very stiff.
Zieroth believes that the treatment’s approval by Health Canada for chronic heart failure will simplify therapies for individuals regardless of their EF score and enhance access to the best medicines.
Access to this medication, according to Zieroth, could result in a 21% reduction in cardiovascular mortality and hospitalizations associated with heart failure, as demonstrated in the clinical trial.
“Not only does this enhance the prognosis for patients, but it also lowers the expenditures to the healthcare system,” Zieroth explained.
According to Zieroth, heart failure increases, with 750,000 Canadians suffering from it. Every year, an additional 100,000 new cases are discovered.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and certain European countries have approved the therapy.
Source: CTV News
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