Clinical impacts of sacubitril/valsartan on patients eligible for cardiac resynchronization therapy

• Published in: ESC Heart Failure Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. 3825 - 3835
• Main Authors: Huang, Hsin‐Ti, Huang, Jin‐Long, Lin, Po‐Lin, Lee, Ying‐Hsiang, Hsu, Chien‐Yi, Chung, Fa‐Po, Liao, Chia‐Te, Chiou, Wei‐Ru, Lin, Wen‐Yu, Liang, Huai‐Wen, Chang, Hung‐Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.12.2022; Wiley
• Subjects: Arrhythmias, Cardiac - complications; Blood pressure; Body mass index; Bundle-Branch Block; Cardiac arrhythmia; Cardiac resynchronization therapy; Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy - methods; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Diabetes; Ejection fraction; Electrocardiography; Guideline directed medical therapy; Heart Failure; Humans; Hypertension; Left bundle branch block; Morphology; Mortality; Patients; Reverse cardiac remodelling; Sacubitril/valsartan; Stroke Volume; Survival analysis; Thyroid gland; Treatment Outcome; Valsartan; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left; Ventricular Function, Left; Ventricular Remodeling; Taiwan; Heart failure; Reverse cardiac remodelling; Sacubitril/valsartan; Left bundle branch block; Guideline directed medical therapy; Cardiac resynchronization therapy
• ISSN: 2055-5822; 2055-5822
• DOI: 10.1002/ehf2.14107

Aims Sacubitril/valsartan (SAC/VAL) has been used in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) could benefit the HFrEF patients with wide QRS durations. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical impacts of SAC/VAL on reverse cardiac remodelling in CRT‐eligible and CRT‐ineligible HFrEF patients with different QRS durations. Methods and results The TAROT‐HF study was a multicentre, observational study enrolling patients who initiated SAC/VAL from 10 hospitals since 2017. Patients with baseline left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 35% were classified into two groups: (i) Group 1: CRT‐eligible group, patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB) morphology plus QRS duration ≥130 ms or non‐LBBB morphology plus QRS duration ≥150 ms; and (ii) Group 2: CRT‐ineligible group. Propensity score matching was performed to adjust for confounders, and 1168 patients were analysed. Baseline characteristics were comparable between the two groups. The improvements in LVEF and left ventricular end‐systolic volume index (LVESVi) were more significant in Group 2 than in Group 1 after 1 year SAC/VAL treatment (LVEF: 8.4% ± 11.3% vs. 4.5% ± 8.1%, P < 0.001; change percentages in LVESVi: −14.4% ± 25.9% vs. −9.6% ± 23.1%, P = 0.004). LVEF improving to ≥50% in Groups 1 and 2 constituted 5.2% and 20.2% after 1 year SAC/VAL treatment (P < 0.001). Multivariate analyses showed that wide QRS durations were negatively associated with the reverse cardiac remodelling in these HFrEF patients with SAC/VAL treatment. Conclusion Despite SAC/VAL treatment, wide QRS durations are associated with lower degrees of left ventricular improvement than narrow ones in the HFrEF patients. Optimal intervention timing for the CRT‐eligible patients requires further investigation.