Guideline‐directed medical therapy for heart failure in arrhythmia‐induced cardiomyopathy with improved left ventricular ejection fraction

Abstract

AimsNo study has analyzed the impact of guideline‐directed medical therapy in preventing heart failure (HF) relapse in patients with arrhythmia‐induced cardiomyopathy (AiCM) following left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) improvement.Methods and resultsWe analyzed data from a single‐center cohort of 200 patients admitted for HF, LVEF <50% and cardiac arrhythmia considered by cardiologists to be the precipitating cause of the episode. The primary endpoint was time‐to‐HF relapse, defined as the composite of readmission for HF, Emergency Department (ED) visit for HF, or significant decline in LVEF. Changes in medication were recorded and a time‐varying multivariate Cox regression was performed. After a median follow‐up period of 6.14 years, diagnostic confirmation was achieved in 188 out of the initial 200 patients with suspected AiCM. A total of 89 patients (47.3%) met the primary endpoint. RAS inhibitors (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.50 [0.31–0.81]; p = 0.005) and beta‐blockers (adjusted HR 0.48 [0.28–0.81]; p = 0.006) were associated with a lower incidence of relapse. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists were associated with a significantly lower incidence of ED visits for HF (adjusted HR 0.38 [0.15–0.95]; p = 0.038), but did not achieve statistical significance for the combined primary endpoint. Antiarrhythmic drugs did not show a significant impact on the primary endpoint.ConclusionMaintaining RAS inhibitors and beta‐blockers was associated with a significantly lower incidence of relapse in the setting of AiCM with improved LVEF.