According to the results of the EMPULSE phase III clinical trial, patients admitted for acute heart failure are 36% more likely to experience improvement within 90 days of receiving treatment with empagliflozin, an existing drug that is mostly prescribed for type 2 diabetes. Dr Josep Comin, head of the Cardiovascular Disease research group and head of the Cardiology Service at the Bellvitge Hospital, has been the state coordinator of the trial, which counted on the participation of professionals and centres from 17 countries around the world
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, involved 530 hospitalized patients who were stabilized after suffering from an acute heart failure. A combined assessment of mortality, hospitalizations, and quality of life over 90 days was used to evaluate the improvement in treatment with empaglifozine, comparing between the group receiving the drug and the one receiving a placebo.
According to Dr Josep Comin, “Hospitalisation is a very fragile time for a patient with acute heart failure, but at the same time we can get the most out of preventing new adverse events. In this sense, the results of the study may change the clinical practice with these patients.”
Empagliflozin is a highly selective inhibitor of glucose-sodium 2 transporters (SGLT2). In patients with type 2 diabetes, this inhibitor prevents the absorption of blood glucose into the kidney, lowering blood glucose levels. In addition to its use for diabetes 2, empagliflozin is also approved in Europe and the United States for the treatment of chronic HF with reduced ejection fraction (the heart fails to pump enough blood with each contraction). Until now, however, its benefits during hospitalisation for acute heart failure have not been evaluated.
According to data from the Spanish Society of Cardiology, more than 107,000 hospital admissions per year caused by heart failure take place in Spain, where this adverse event is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 years.
Professionals and centres from the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, China, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, the Czech Republic, Italy, Canada and Spain took part in the EMPULSE phase three and multicentre clinical trial. The study is part of the EMPOWER program jointly run by Boehringer Ingelheim laboratories and Eli Lilly and Company.
Reference article
Voors, A.A., Angermann, C.E., Teerlink, J.R. et al. The SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure: a multinational randomized trial. Nat Med 28, 568–574 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01659-1