ACC: Digoxin Drops HF Admissions
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: March 14, 2013 - Reviewed by Zalman s. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
SAN FRANCISCO -- "Digoxin could be part of the solution to high hospitalization rates in heart failure, researchers suggested in a subanalysis of the DIG trial.
The 30-day all-cause hospital admission rate fell to 5.4% with digoxin compared with 8.1% with placebo among Medicare-age patients with heart failure (P=0.002), Ali Ahmed, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center and University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues found.
That 34% relative reduction could be crucial for hospitals' bottom line now that Medicare reduces reimbursement for facilities whose 30-day readmissions are too high, Ahmed reported here at the American College of Cardiology meeting.
The results with digoxin persisted without a price to pay in later readmissions, deaths, or other events, he added at the late-breaking clinical trial session. Results were released simultaneously online in the American Journal of Medicine."
The 30-day all-cause hospital admission rate fell to 5.4% with digoxin compared with 8.1% with placebo among Medicare-age patients with heart failure (P=0.002), Ali Ahmed, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center and University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues found.
That 34% relative reduction could be crucial for hospitals' bottom line now that Medicare reduces reimbursement for facilities whose 30-day readmissions are too high, Ahmed reported here at the American College of Cardiology meeting.
The results with digoxin persisted without a price to pay in later readmissions, deaths, or other events, he added at the late-breaking clinical trial session. Results were released simultaneously online in the American Journal of Medicine."
Action Points
- In a post-hoc subanalysis of the DIG trial, digoxin reduced the risk of 30-day hospital admission in ambulatory older adults with chronic systolic heart failure receiving ACE inhibitors and diuretics.
- It is not known if similar results could be replicated in contemporary older heart failure patients as management of congestive failure has changed and is managed much more aggressively today.