Dapagliflozin lowered the risk of deteriorating heart failure and cardiovascular death while improving symptoms in Black and white patients, according to new data published in JACC: Heart Failure.
The goal of the study was to examine the efficacy and safety of dapagliflozin in Black and white patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
For the DAPA-HF trial, researchers evaluated 4,744 patients.
Seventy-nine percent of patients were white, and 15.1% were Black.
Overall, the team found, Black patients were much younger (mean: 63 years) compared with white patients (mean: 67 years).
In addition, a greater percentage of Black patients (34.7%), compared with white patients (24.7%), were women.
Black patients also had a higher body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP), as well as a higher incidence of hypertension and diabetes, compared with white patients.
In the analysis, Black patients had a higher rate of worsening HF events, but not mortality, compared with white patients.
The authors found that, when dapagliflozin was added to standard treatment for HFrEF, it reduced the risk of worsening HF episode and CV death to a comparable degree in Black patients (0.62) and white patients (0.68).
“Despite the small absolute number of Black patients in DAPA-HF, clear differences in outcomes between Black and white patients were demonstrable, as were the benefits of dapagliflozin in both patient groups,” wrote lead author, Kieran F. Docherty, MBCHB, with the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow, and colleagues. “There were substantial differences in the clinical profile between Black and white patients, which largely confirmed those described in prior epidemiologic and registry studies, as well as trials.”
Docherty et al. noted: “These findings provide further support for the use of dapagliflozin as a new treatment option in HFrEF, regardless of race.”
Read the full study here.