Drug treatment with empagliflozin was beneficial in people with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: plain language summary of the EMPEROR-Preserved study.

What is this summary about?: This summary describes a study of a new pill for treating chronic heart failure called empagliflozin (brand name Jardiance^®). The study is called EMPEROR-Preserved and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Chronic heart failure is a condition where the heart does not pump blood around the body properly. Heart failure causes symptoms such as shortness of breath, tiredness and build-up of too much water in the body (fluid retention). These symptoms often need hospital treatment and increase the risk of early death.

What was the emperor-preserved study?: The EMPEROR-Preserved study looked at how empagliflozin works in people living with a type of heart failure called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. In this type of heart failure, the lower left chamber (ventricle) of the heart is too stiff to fill with enough blood during each heartbeat.

What happened during the study?: Almost 6000 people living with preserved ejection fraction heart failure were asked to take either a pill containing empagliflozin or a placebo, an identical pill lacking empagliflozin, daily. The choice of pill for each participant was randomly assigned. The study was double-blinded, meaning that neither the participants nor their doctors knew which pill the participants were taking.

What were the results?: After an average of 26 months of treatment, empagliflozin reduced the risk of participants needing hospital treatment for complications of heart failure by about 30%. Side effects were generally similar in participants who took empagliflozin and in those who took the placebo, except for genital infections like thrush, which happened in more people who took empagliflozin (2.2%) than in those who took the placebo (0.7%).

What do the results mean?: A previous study called EMPEROR-Reduced found that empagliflozin had similar benefits in participants with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Therefore, the overall evidence shows that empagliflozin can help people with heart failure whether it is caused by reduced ejection fraction or preserved ejection fraction. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT03057951 (EMPEROR-Preserved study) (ClinicalTrials.gov).