Help in Managing Reduced Ejection Fraction

Physicians could help heart failure patients suffering from reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF) by using pulmonary artery pressure management.

That monitoring is more treatment than current guidelines recommend, according to a study led by William Abraham, MD, of the Ohio State University Heart and Vascular Center, Columbus, OH.

These patients are at high risk for heart failure hospitalization, Abraham said.

In making the case for pulmonary artery pressure management he noted that the CHAMPION trial showed that pulmonary artery pressure monitoring “significantly reduced heart failure hospitalizations in patients with reduced or preserved ejection fraction.”

Abraham will present his findings in an abstract in a poster session Sunday, March 15 at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego, CA.

His team evaluated whether this monitoring would be beneficial in the HFrEF group (defined as patients with left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 40%.

According to the abstract, the researchers found that when the monitoring was added to guideline directed medical therapies like neurohormonal control, there were “significant reductions in heart failure hospitalizations and mortality.”