After four weeks of treatment with a novel inhaled medication, heart failure patients saw no improvements in exercise capacity, daily activity levels, severity of symptoms or quality of life, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session.
Conducted in the Heart Failure Network, the NHLBI-funded trial involved patients who have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a type of heart failure for which no effective treatment options currently exist.
A research priority for NHLBI, HFpEF is a major public health problem that is rising in prevalence with the aging population and the ongoing epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. HFpEF accounts for nearly half of all heart failure (HF) cases with a prevalence of at least 3 million in the U.S. alone and may be under-diagnosed in the general population.