The Long-Term Benefit of Sacubitril/Valsartan in Patients with HFrEF: A 5-Year Follow-Up Study in a Real World Population.

Heart failure (HF) is a progressive condition with an increasing prevalence, and the scientific evidence of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) reports a 6% rate of 1-year mortality in stable patients, whereas, in recently hospitalized patients, the 1-year mortality rates exceed 20%. The Sacubitril/Valsartan (S/V), the first angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), significantly reduced both HF hospitalization and cardiovascular mortality. AIM OF THE STUDY: to evaluate the effect of S/V in a follow-up period of 5 years from the beginning of the therapy. We compared the one-year outcomes of S/V use with those obtained after 5 years of therapy, monitoring the long-term effects in a real-world population with HFrEF.

methodsSeventy consecutive patients with HFrEF and eligible for ARNI, according to PARADIGM-HF criteria, were enrolled. All patients had an overall follow-up of 60 months, during which time they underwent standard transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) with Global Longitudinal Strain (GLS) evaluation, the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), the Six Minutes Walking Test (6MWT), and blood tests (NT-pro-BNP and BNP, renal function tests).

resultsNTproBNP values were reduced significantly among the three time-points (

conclusionsWe verified that the improvements obtained after one year of therapy had not reached a plateau phase but continued to improve and were statistically significant at 5 years. Although our data should be confirmed in larger and multicentre studies, we can state that the utilization of Sacubitril/Valsartan has catalysed substantial transformations in the prognostic landscape of chronic HFrEF, yielding profound clinical implications.