Does empagliflozin reduce cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction irrespective of age?
Empagliflozin effectively reduces cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalizations and improves symptoms in patients with HFpEF across all age groups, without an increase in adverse events in older patients.
BACKGROUND: Empagliflozin reduces cardiovascular death (CVD) or heart failure (HF) hospitalization (HFH) in patients with HF and preserved ejection fraction. Treatment effects and safety in relation to age have not been studied. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interplay of age and empagliflozin effects in EMPEROR-Preserved (Empagliflozin Outcome Trial in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction). METHODS: We grouped patients (n = 5,988) according to their baseline age (80 years (P interaction = 0.51). Empagliflozin improved Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire-Clinical Summary Score at week 52 and attenuated the decline of estimated glomerular filtration rate without age interaction (P = 0.48 and P = 0.32, respectively). There were no clinically relevant differences in adverse events between empagliflozin and placebo across the age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Empagliflozin reduced primary outcomes and first and recurrent HFH and improved symptoms across a broad age spectrum. High age was not associated with reduced efficacy or meaningful intolerability. (Empagliflozin Outcome Trial in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction EMPEROR-Preserved; NCT0305951).
Böhm et al. (2022) studied this question.