United States: “Loop diuretics” are types of medicine often suggested for people who have heart problems. These medicines help to get rid of extra water in the body, which is a common issue for people with heart failure.
New Approach to Heart Failure
According to recent exploration, individualities may be suitable to lessen their need for diuretics by using the popular weight- loss drug semaglutide, also known as Wegovy.
” There was substantiation of a significant reduction in average circle diuretic cure, a lower liability of diuretic treatment escalation, and a lesser liability of diuretic treatment de-escalation with semaglutide versus placebo,” according to Dr. Kavita Sharma, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of drug at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, following a time of Wegovy use.
Research Findings Unveile
At the European Society of Cardiology’s Heart Failure 2024 conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Monday, the researchers presented their research results.
The Hopkins study concentrated on “heart failure with preserved ejection fraction” (HFePF), a particular kind of heart failure.
According to a meeting news release, in this prevalent form of the condition, the “heart pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly, rendering the heart unable to support the body’s need for oxygen-rich blood.”
Multinational Trial Insights:
The multinational trial included 1,145 individuals with HFePF in total. The patients, half of whom were male and the other half female, had an average age of 70 years and an obese body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.
220 patients were not taking diuretics at the beginning, 223 patients were only taking non-loop diuretics, and 702 patients were on loop diuretics.
For 52 weeks, each subject had one weekly injection of Wegovy or a “dummy” placebo.
Weight Loss and Heart Health
Over that time, patients on Wegovy usually saw significant weight loss.
Patients receiving Wegovy who were not on a diuretic lost an average of 8.8% of their body weight compared to those receiving a placebo injection, while patients receiving the highest dose of loop diuretics experienced an average weight loss of 6.9%. These findings were reported by Sharma’s team.
Improvements in other heart failure metrics, such as performance on a common six-minute walking test, appeared to be associated with Wegovy use.
Reduced Diuretic Dependency
Most notably, the researchers found that after taking Wegovy for a year, patients’ average requirement for loop diuretics decreased by 17%, whereas the use of diuretics increased by 2.4% on average for those who received the placebo.
According to the meeting news release, the trial concluded that “there were fewer serious adverse events with semaglutide vs. placebo across diuretic subgroups.”
Heart Failure Management Implications
In general, “semaglutide improved symptoms, physical limitations and led to greater weight loss across diuretic use categories in patients with HFpEF,” Sharma stated.
The results support the” complaint- modifying goods of semaglutide.( that are) associated with better long- term clinical issues in this patient population,” she added, noting the drop in the demand for diuretics.
These results should be regarded as primary until they’re published in a peer- reviewed publication because they were presented at a medical convention.