Key result
Pharmacological therapies for heart failure delay deterioration rather than being truly life-saving, highlighting the utility of prolongation of life statistics to calculate lifetime benefit.
Therapies in heart failure modify the natural history and delay deterioration, suggesting that prolongation of life statistics may be a valuable outcome measure in clinical trials.
Chronic heart failure is responsible for considerable suffering and mortality throughout the world. Clinical trials have consistently demonstrated the benefits of pharmacological therapies such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-adrenoceptor blockers. These drugs are often quoted as reducing mortality from heart failure, yet all patients with heart failure deteriorate and most will die because of their disease. Therapies in heart failure are not truly life saving; they modify the natural history of the disease and delay the time to deterioration. The time benefit in survival is not usually reported in clinical trials, which are conducted over fixed time points and report risk reductions during this period only. In this paper, we discuss the use of prolongation of life statistics as an outcome measure in clinical trials and review simple techniques for calculating the lifetime benefit of pharmacological intervention in heart failure using data from a number of major studies
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Malkin et al. (2004) conducted a review in Congestive Heart Failure. Pharmacological therapies (ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers) was evaluated on Prolongation of life statistics / lifetime benefit. Pharmacological therapies for heart failure delay deterioration rather than being truly life-saving, highlighting the utility of prolongation of life statistics to calculate lifetime benefit.
Synapse has enriched 5 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: