Abstract
Women have traditionally been underrepresented in heart failure (HF) trials, and their baseline characteristics and outcomes after hospitalization for HF are unclear. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients according to gender in the Efficacy of Vasopressin Antagonism in Heart Failure Outcome Study with Tolvaptan (EVEREST) trial. EVEREST randomized 4,133 patients hospitalized for HF and ejection fraction of ≤40% to tolvaptan or placebo, in addition to standard therapy. The median follow-up was 9.9 months. Log-rank tests and multivariate Cox regression models were used to compare the hazards of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality or HF hospitalization. Women constituted 1,058 (26%) of the study population. The baseline characteristics were similar except that the women were older with more hypertension and diabetes and less chronic renal insufficiency, previous myocardial infarction, previous coronary revascularization, and baseline defibrillator implantation (all p <0.001). The baseline use of evidence-based HF medical therapies was similar between genders (all p >0.30). Despite a high event rate, no difference was seen in all-cause mortality (men 27% vs women 24%, multivariate hazard ratio 1.04, p = 0.61) or cardiovascular mortality plus HF hospitalization (men 42% vs women 39%, multivariate hazard ratio 1.11, p = 0.10) on univariate analysis or after adjusting for baseline covariates. In conclusion, women hospitalized for worsening HF with an ejection fraction of ≤40% were older, had more hypertension, and had received fewer procedure-based interventions than men but had relatively similar HF medication usage and clinical findings. After hospitalization for HF, women have a similarly high risk of long-term HF morbidity and mortality compared with men.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1803-1808 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | American Journal of Cardiology |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 15 2012 |
Funding
This study was supported by Otsuka, Inc. (Rockville Maryland). Dr. Konstam receives research grants from and is a consultant for Otsuka , Johnson & Johnson , Amgen , and Trevena . Dr. O’Connor is a consultant for Merck & Co., Inc., Trevena, Novella, Pfizer Inc., GE Healthcare, Roche, Amgen, Martek, Actelion, and JNJ. Dr. Zannad has received honoraria from and served on advisory boards for Pfizer Inc. Dr. Maggioni receives honoraria from Otsuka. Dr. Swedberg receives research grants from AstraZeneca , Servier , and Amgen ; honoraria from AstraZeneca, Otsuka, Servier, and Amgen; and is a consultant for Cytokinetics, Servier, and Novartis. Dr. Gheorghiade is a consultant for Abbott Labs, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer Schering Pharma AG, CorThera Inc., Cytokinetics Inc., DebioPharm S.A., Errekappa Terapeutici (Milan, Italy), Glaxo Smith Kline, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Novartis Pharma AG, Otsuka, Sigma Tau, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and Pericor Therapeutics. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
