Clinical Trial Presented to Improve Recovery of Heart Failure Patients

Researchers from the Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation working group of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI) have presented a clinical trial on a combination of diuretics that improves the recovery of patients with heart failure. José Luis Morales Rull, a specialist in Internal Medicine at the Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova (HUAV) and the Heart Failure Unit of the Lleida Health Region, head of the research group Nutrition, Metabolism and Microbiota in patients with heart failure (NUTRIMMIC) of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida (IRBLleida) and professor at the University of Lleida (UdL) is one of the coordinators of the study, which has explored an area of heart failure that until now was orphaned of scientific evidence.

Under the name Clorotic, the trial has focused on the study of a new diuretic therapy to alleviate fluid accumulation in patients admitted with chronic heart failure. Until the appearance of this trial, recommendations were based on expert consensus, and now the efficacy of the diuretic combination to combat congestion has been demonstrated. "With a better combination of diuretic drugs the patient loses weight thanks to the loss of fluids, improves sooner and could reduce hospital stay," explains Morales.

This multicenter clinical trial, which was presented during the European Congress on Heart Failure, involved a total of 26 hospitals and was coordinated by the IRBLleida, while the Pharma Scientific-Technical Service was in charge of technical coordination and monitoring. The relevance of the study was highlighted during the closing ceremony of the congress in the "Heart Failure 2022 Highlights", by leading members of the European Society of Cardiology, who defined it as "a pragmatic study in an area that has been neglected for a long time and which corroborates the recommendations made in the clinical practice guidelines".