Key result
Digitalis might reduce hospitalizations and clinical deterioration in patients with chronic heart failure, but its effect on mortality remains uncertain due to very low certainty of evidence.
Why the study?
Does digitalis reduce mortality, hospitalizations, and clinical deterioration in patients with chronic heart failure?
Meta-Analysis (n=9,022)
Does digitalis reduce mortality, hospitalizations, and clinical deterioration in patients with chronic heart failure?
Digitalis may reduce hospitalizations and clinical deterioration in chronic heart failure, but does not appear to decrease mortality.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May reduce hospitalizations in chronic HF; extends evidence base but leaves mortality impact uncertain due to low certainty.
The main clinical guidelines recommend the use of digitalis for chronic heart failure when moderate to severe symptoms persist after standard therapy, even though there is controversy about its efficacy and security. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified three systematic reviews including 13 randomized trials. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table following the GRADE approach. We concluded the use of digitalis for chronic heart failure probably leads to little or no decrease in mortality, but might reduce hospitalizations and clinical deterioration. However, the certainty of the evidence is low.
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Rain et al. (2015) conducted a meta-analysis in Chronic heart failure (n=9,022). Digitalis (digoxin) vs. Placebo was evaluated on Mortality. Digitalis might reduce hospitalizations and clinical deterioration in patients with chronic heart failure, but its effect on mortality remains uncertain due to very low certainty of evidence.
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