Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25639592›Full record

ReviewEuropean journal of heart failure2015

Iron therapy for the treatment of iron deficiency in chronic heart failure: intravenous or oral?

Theresa McDonagh, Iain C Macdougall

2 registry-linked trialsOpen access · hybridAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in European journal of heart failure, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 61 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
61citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
12.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT02998697 phase2 / phase3completednot on this mapstarted 2016, after this paper: background citation

The Effect of Short Term Oral Iron Supplementation in Systolic Heart Failure Patients Suffering From Iron Deficiency Anemia

TypeinterventionalSponsorNational Cardiovascular Center Harapan Kita Hospital IndonesiaRan2016 to 2016Enrolled54ConditionsHeart Failure, Systolic, Iron-deficiency AnemiaArmsFerrous Sulfate, Placebo Oral Capsule
NCT07523646 phase4recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2026, after this paper: background citation

Anemia Therapy in Patients With Infective Endocarditis (POET-IRON)

TypeinterventionalSponsorRigshospitalet, DenmarkRan2026 to 2028Enrolled74ConditionsInfective Endocarditis (IE), Severe AnemiaArmsAdjunctive anemia therapy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

61 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 146 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Trial
  7. Article
  8. Iron Deficiency as a Modifiable Risk Factor in Heart Failure: Evidence and Recommendations.American journal of cardiovascular drugs : drugs, devices, and other interventions · 2026
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Intravenous iron in heart failure: still no prognostic impact, but questions remain.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
  19. Treatment of Iron Deficiency in Heart Failure.Current cardiology reports · 2023
    Review
  20. Article

1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.

Theresa McDonaghDepartment of Cardiology, King's College Hospital, London, UK.
Iain C Macdougall
King's College Hospital · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This article considers the use and modality of iron therapy to treat iron deficiency in patients with heart failure, an aspect of care which has received relatively little attention compared with the wider topic of anaemia management. Iron deficiency affects up to 50% of heart failure patients, and is associated with poor quality of life, impaired exercise tolerance, and mortality independent of haematopoietic effects in this patient population. The European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for heart failure 2012 recommend a diagnostic work-up for iron deficiency in patients with suspected heart failure. Iron absorption from oral iron preparations is generally poor, with slow and often inefficient iron repletion; moreover, up to 60% of patients experience gastrointestinal side effects. These problems may be exacerbated in heart failure due to decreased gastrointestinal absorption and poor compliance due to pill burden. Evidence for clinical benefits using oral iron is lacking. I.v. iron sucrose has consistently been shown to improve exercise capacity, cardiac function, symptom severity, and quality of life. Similar findings were observed recently for i.v. ferric carboxymaltose in patients with systolic heart failure and impaired LVEF in the double-blind, placebo-controlled FAIR-HF and CONFIRM-HF trials. I.v. iron therapy may be better tolerated than oral iron, although confirmation in longer clinical trials is awaited. Routine diagnosis and management of iron deficiency in patients with symptomatic heart failure regardless of anaemia status is advisable, and, based on current evidence, prompt intervention using i.v. iron therapy should now be considered.

Indexed as

Administration, IntravenousAdministration, OralAnemia, Iron-DeficiencyFerric CompoundsHeart FailureHumansFerric CompoundsAnaemiaHeart failureIntravenousIronIron deficiencyOralQuality of life

Identifiers

PMID25639592
PMCPMC4671256
OpenAlexW1773154314

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.