Diuretic use, progressive heart failure, and death in patients in the Studies Of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD).
OBJECTIVE
We sought to determine whether non-potassium-sparing diuretics (PSDs) in the absence of a PSD may result in progressive heart failure (HF).


BACKGROUND
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors incompletely suppress ACE activity in HF patients. Furthermore, non-PSDs are activators of aldosterone secretion. We reasoned that non-PSDs, in the absence of a PSD, might result in progressive HF.


METHODS
In the 6,797 patients in the Studies Of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD), we compared the risk of hospitalization for, or death from, HF between those taking a PSD and those who were not, adjusting for known covariates.


RESULTS
The risk of hospitalization from worsening HF in those taking a PSD relative to those taking only a non-PSD was 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.55 to 0.99; p = 0.047). The relative risk for cardiovascular death was 0.74 (95% CI 0.59 to 0.93; p = 0.011), for death from all causes 0.73 (95% CI 0.59 to 0.90; p = 0.004), and for hospitalization for, or death from, HF 0.75 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.97; p = 0.030). Compared with patients not taking any diuretic, the risk of hospitalization or death due to worsening HF in patients taking non-PSDs alone was significantly increased (risk ratio [RR] = 1.31, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.57; p = 0.0004); this was not observed in patients taking PSDs with or without a non-PSD (RR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.30; p = 0.95).


CONCLUSIONS
The use of PSDs in HF patients is associated with a reduced risk of death from, or hospitalization for, progressive HF or all-cause or cardiovascular death, compared with patients taking only a non-PSD.
Domanski
Michael
M
Clinical Trials Group, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7936, USA. domanskm@NIH.gov
Norman
James
J
Pitt
Bertram
B
Haigney
Mark
M
Hanlon
Stephen
S
Peyster
Eliot
E
D000368:Aged; D000450:Aldosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D002423:Cause of Death; D018450:Disease Progression; D004232:Diuretics / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology
D004232:Diuretics; D000450:Aldosterone; D011188:Potassium