A clinical trial shows the safety of digitalis in diastolic heart failure

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Digitalis can safely be used in patients who have diastolic heart failure, despite previous concerns.
Around half of patients with heart failure have a form called diastolic heart failure, which has been discovered only relatively recently. In diastolic heart failure, the heart muscle is stiff and does not take in enough blood with each beat. The other form is systolic heart failure, where the heart muscle is too weak to pump blood effectively around the body.

In one of the first trials to test a treatment specifically for diastolic heart failure, researchers at Wake Forest University report on the use of digitalis in these patients. Digitalis is one of the oldest heart drugs and its use in systolic heart failure is well established. But there had been fears it could precipitate early death in diastolic heart failure. In this trial patients were on digitalis or placebo and various other heart failure treatments for around 37 months. Digitalis did not have any effect on the death rate from heart failure or any other cause. Nor did it seem to have any net benefit - although the researchers say it could be useful in treating atrial fibrillation (a type of abnormal heart rhythm) in this patient group. Doctors can now prescribe digitalis for this purpose knowing it to be safe.

Source
Circulation online 25th July 2006