Tag Archives: ASCEND-HF

Counting the cost of acute heart failure In the first keynote lecture, Professor John McMurray (BHF Cardiovascular Research Centre, Glasgow) began by addressing the definition of acute heart failure (HF). He felt the term ‘acute’ was unhelpful, as it can be applied to a broad spectrum of clinical presentation, from the rapid onset of acute pulmonary oedema, to the subacute deterioration in chronic HF symptoms (predominantly peripheral oedema) that culminates in hospitalisation. Accordingly, the new 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF)/American Heart Association (AHA) HF guidelines refer to ‘the hospitalised patient’,

A new treatment for acute heart failure? The recently published RELAX-AHF (Efficacy and Safety of Relaxin for the Treatment of Acute Heart Failure) study was a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial carried out in a targeted population of patients with acute HF.1 Relaxin is a physiological hormone that regulates maternal adaptations to pregnancy, increasing cardiac output, renal blood flow, and arterial compliance, alongside decreased peripheral vascular resistance.2,3 Serelaxin is a recombinant human relaxin-2 shown to have beneficial effects on symptoms and outcomes in early studies.4 The primary end points in thi