Blood pressure and intensive treatment up-titration after acute heart failure hospitalization: Insights from the STRONG-HF trial

Matteo Pagnesi, Oscar Alberto Gomez Vilamajó, Alejandro Meiriño, Carlos Alberto Dumont, Alexandre Mebazaa, Beth Davison, Marianna Adamo, Mattia Arrigo, Marianela Barros, Jan Biegus, Jelena Celutkiene, Kamilė Čerlinskaitė-Bajorė, Ovidiu Chioncel, Alain Cohen-Solal, Albertino Damasceno, Rafael Diaz, Christopher Edwards, Gerasimos Filippatos, Etienne Gayat, Antoine KimmounCarolyn S.P. Lam, Maria Novosadova, Peter S. Pang, Piotr Ponikowski, Hadiza Saidu, Karen Sliwa, Koji Takagi, Jozine M. ter Maaten, Daniela Tomasoni, Adriaan A. Voors, Gad Cotter, Marco Metra*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Aims: A high-intensity care (HIC) strategy with rapid guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) up-titration and close follow-up visits improved outcomes, compared to usual care (UC), in patients recently hospitalized for acute heart failure (AHF). Hypotension is a major limitation to GDMT implementation. We aimed to assess the impact of baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) on the effects of HIC versus UC and the role of early SBP changes in STRONG-HF. 

Methods and results: A total of 1075 patients hospitalized for AHF with SBP ≥100 mmHg were included in STRONG-HF. For the purpose of this post-hoc analysis, patients were stratified by tertiles of baseline SBP (<118, 118–128, and ≥129 mmHg) and, in the HIC arm, by tertiles of changes in SBP from the values measured before discharge to those measured at 1 week after discharge (≥2 mmHg increase, ≤7 mmHg decrease to <2 mmHg increase, and ≥8 mmHg decrease). The primary endpoint was 180-day heart failure rehospitalization or death. The effect of HIC versus UC on the primary endpoint was independent of baseline SBP evaluated as tertiles (pinteraction = 0.77) or as a continuous variable (pinteraction = 0.91). In the HIC arm, patients with increased, stable and decreased SBP at 1 week reached 83.5%, 76.2% and 75.3% of target doses of GDMT at day 90. The risk of the primary endpoint was not significantly different between patients with different SBP changes at 1 week (adjusted p = 0.46). 

Conclusions: In STRONG-HF, the benefits of HIC versus UC were independent of baseline SBP. Rapid GDMT up-titration was performed also in patients with an early SBP drop, resulting in similar 180-day outcome as compared to patients with stable or increased SBP.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)638-651
Number of pages14
JournalEuropean Journal of Heart Failure
Volume26
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar-2024

Keywords

  • Acute heart failure
  • Blood pressure
  • Heart failure
  • Medical therapy
  • Randomized trial

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