Optimization of heart rate lowering therapy in hospitalized patients with heart failure: Insights from the Optimize Heart Failure Care Program.

BACKGROUND: Hospitalization is an opportunity to optimize heart failure (HF) therapy. As optimal treatment for hospitalized HF patients in sinus rhythm with heart rate≥70bpm is unclear, we investigated the impact of combined beta-blocker (BB) and ivabradine versus BBs alone on short and longer term mortality and rehospitalization. METHODS AND RESULTS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 370 hospitalized HF patients with heart rate≥70bpm (150 BB+ivabradine, 220 BB alone) in the Optimize Heart Failure Care Program in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, from October 2015 to April 2016. RESULTS: At 1month, 3months, 6months and 12months, there were fewer deaths, HF hospitalizations and overall hospitalizations in patients on BB+ivabradine vs BBs alone. At 12months, all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization was significantly lower with BB+ivabradine than BBs (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32-0.64, P<0.0001). Significantly greater improvement was seen in quality of life (QOL) from admission to 12months with BB+ivabradine vs BBs alone (P=0.0001). With BB+ivabradine, significantly more patients achieved ≥50% target doses of BBs at 12months than on admission (82.0% vs 66.6%, P=0.0001), but the effect was non-significant with BBs alone. CONCLUSIONS: Heart rate lowering therapy with BB+ivabradine started in hospitalized HF patients (heart rate≥70bpm) is associated with reduced overall mortality and re-hospitalization over the subsequent 12months. A prospective randomized trial is needed to confirm the advantages of this strategy.