American College of Cardiology

ACC 49th Annual Scientific Session
Late-Breaking Clinical Trials
in Interventional Cardiology (#72)
Wednesday, March 15, 2000 (10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.)

(ANAHEIM, CALIF.)—Often the blood-pumping ability of the weakened hearts of patients with long-standing cardiac disease can rapidly worsen such that hospital admission is needed. The treatment of such heart failure exacerbations can then include intravenous drugs that make the heart pump more vigorously. These drugs, called positive inotropic agents, can help stabilize the patient and guide selection of oral medications. But no clinical trials have shown whether this use of inotropic agents improves the ultimate patient outcome or helps prevent future hospitalizations.

That could well change with findings from the OPTIME-CHF trial, “the first trial to address the in-hospital management of heart failure in a randomized, double-blind fashion,” according to Dr. Mihai Gheorghiade, of Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago.

Dr. Gheorghiade will present results from the multicenter OPTIME-CHF (Outcomes of a Prospective Trial of Intravenous Milrinone for Exacerbations of Chronic Heart Failure) trial on Wednesday, March 15, at 10:45 a.m. at the American College of Cardiology 49th Annual Scientific Session in Anaheim, Calif.

Patients who survive hospitalization for worsening heart failure are typically treated with standard medications consisting of diuretics, digoxin, and various kinds of vasodilating drugs. Many of them, said Dr. Gheorghiade, are repeatedly hospitalized because of a poor response to chronic treatment. A primary goal of the OPTIME-CHF trial is to determine whether in-hospital IV treatment with the inotropic agent milrinone can reduce the number of days patients later spend in the hospital once they are discharged.

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