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Back to Cardiology Articles
Monday, 8th November, 2004
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BiDil showed a 43 percent decrease in the one-year mortality rates among
African-Americans in the study.
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DALLAS – Nov. 8, 2004 – A new medication has dramatically
reduced mortality among African-American patients suffering from
heart disease, according to results of a study including UT
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers.
The results were so favorable that investigators halted the
multi-center trial so that all the 1,050 study participants
suffering from advanced heart failure, including those on a
placebo, could be given the combined drug treatment, said Dr.
Clyde Yancy, a study author and director of the Congestive Heart
Failure/Transplant Program at UT Southwestern/St. Paul
University Medical Center.
"We discovered that patients were indeed living longer and
that their incidence of death was dramatically less," said Dr.
Yancy, professor of internal medicine.
A 43 percent decrease in the one-year mortality rates among
African-Americans in the study receiving the combined treatment
was observed by Dr. Yancy and his UT Southwestern colleagues,
working in conjunction with University of Minnesota researchers.
Participants, which included patients 18 years of age and older
who had a heart failure diagnosis for at least three months,
were recruited from 161 medical centers.
Dr. Yancy said the findings, published in the Nov. 11 edition
of The New England Journal of Medicine, will have a substantial
impact on the treatment of cardiovascular disease for
African-Americans.
"Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the
African-American community," Dr. Yancy said. "We were trying to
find the best treatment for a disease that happens to be in a
specific population."
The clinical trial, called the African-American Heart Failure
Trial, or A-HeFT, used a combination of hydralazine and
isosorbide dinitrate, two older drugs that had been used in the
past to treat various heart conditions and are now being used in
a new combination called BiDil.
In addition, study participants must have received standard
therapy for their heart disease including beta blockers and
diuretics.
The study began in June of 2001 and was discontinued on July
19, 2004, because the results were markedly favorable in
decreasing mortality in the group taking BiDil as opposed to the
group taking placebos.
By narrowing the focus of the study to a specific group of
patients, Dr. Yancy said, the researchers could better assess
the medicine's efficacy within that group. The findings, he
added, provide strong evidence BiDil can slow the progression of
heart failure in addition to decreasing death rates among
African-American patients. Earlier heart drug studies have shown
a marked difference in the drugs' effects in African-Americans
and other ethnic population groups.
"Heart disease affects so many people and adds such a
tremendous burden on the quality of life," Dr. Yancy said. "It
is our hope that this treatment will allow patients with heart
disease to enjoy a higher quality of life."
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References
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, November
11, 2004.
| Article reviewed by: |
Dr. Tamer Fouad, M.D.
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