The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has published an updated guidance on the optimal treatment of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
The document, published in full in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was designed to reflect key data and new treatment strategies that have emerged since the last guidance on the topic was published in 2017.
“This update can serve as interim guidance to clinicians while we await the comprehensive and definitive heart failure guideline update under development by the ACC,” according to the writing group behind the guidance. “The treatment of HFrEF can feel overwhelming, and many opportunities to improve patient outcomes are being missed; hopefully, this expert consensus decision pathway (ECDP) will streamline care to realize the best possible patient outcomes in heart failure.”
The ACC shared a summary of the guidance on its website, highlighting some of the most important updates. For instance, it is now recommended that patients with newly diagnosed stage c HFrEF be prescribed a beta blocker and an angiotensin receptor-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker/angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor. The medications can be started in any order.
Also, surgery is the recommended treatment for patients with severe primary chronic mitral regurgitation.
“For severe chronic functional mitral regurgitation, optimization of guideline-directed medical therapy is recommended prior to consideration of percutaneous transcatheter repair in symptomatic patients only,” according to the writing group.
The authors also emphasized the importance of patient monitoring devices, smartphones and electronic health records when healthcare providers are pushing to provide a “team-based approach” to patient care.
This is the third ECDP the ACC has published in the last month, following a guidance on anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy and another on same-day discharge after percutaneous coronary intervention.
Read the full document here. The ACC-approved summary is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.