Team’s heart failure study highlighted at conference | News

A Royal Surrey Cardiac Team attended a prestigious conference to present an abstract highlighting their valuable research on elderly patients affected by heart failure.

Led by Cardiac Consultant, Dr TP Chua, the cardiology team carried out a pilot study into the use of a drug to help patients over the age of 75 suffering from a condition where the heart fails to pump effectively.

The finding is an important one because other drugs are often not tolerated in elderly patients suffering from this condition.

Dr Chua said: “Heart failure drugs used for the over 80s with ‘reduced ejection fraction’ often cause problems with blood pressure, dizziness and kidney function, but we are using SGLT-2 inhibitors, originally a medicine for diabetic patients, and it has proven to be of great benefit to our elderly patients.

“Royal Surrey’s catchment area includes a high demographic of people living well into their 80s, so this is extremely helpful for our patients.

“As far as we know, there isn’t much published research at the moment showing the effectiveness and safety of this medication in elderly patients with heart failure. It has real benefits for patients who are not able to receive alternative medication, so we’re very excited. Our pilot study looked at the progress of just 60 patients but hopefully it will pave the way for more use of this type of medication in elderly patients with heart failure.”

The team presented the abstract to more than 1,000 delegates in the cardiac field at the British Society for Heart Failure conference. Abstracts accepted by the Society for their annual conference are shortlisted on the quality of the research. The abstract attracted much attention and hopefully will help patients nationally. 

Pictured above: the Cardiology and Heart Failure Team.