October 13, 2022Open Access
View Full PaperA Practical Approach to the Guideline-Directed Pharmacological Treatment of Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction
Key Result
A practical approach algorithm was proposed to support physicians in implementing guideline-directed pharmacological treatment for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
Structured PICO
P
Population
Patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF)
I
Intervention
Practical approach algorithm for guideline-directed pharmacological treatment
Proposes a practical algorithm to support physicians in implementing and optimizing guideline-directed medical therapy for patients with HFrEF in daily practice.
Abstract
Over the last 15-20 years, remarkable developments of heart failure (HF) pharmacotherapies have been achieved. However, HF remains a global healthcare challenge with more than 64 million patients worldwide. Optimization of guideline-directed chronic HF medical therapy is highly recommended with every patient visit to improve outcomes in patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction. However, the majority of patients in real-world settings are treated with doses that are lower than those with proven efficacy in clinical trials, which might be due to concerns of adverse effects and inertia of physicians. Likewise, a significant proportion of patients still do not receive all drug classes that could improve their prognosis. The recent European Society of Cardiology guidelines do not provide detailed recommendations on how these drug classes should be implemented in the treatment of inpatients to allow for both safety and a high likelihood of efficacy. We therefore propose a practical approach algorithm to support physicians to treat HF patients in their daily practice.