ESC Congress highlights

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recently held its annual Congress in Barcelona. The Clinical Services Journal reports on some of the event highlights.

One of the main highlights of the 2014 ESC Congress was the presentation of findings from the PARADIGM-HF trial, which is the largest ever study of a heart failure treatment. Commenting on the trial, Milton Packer, MD, co-primary author of the study from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the US, said: “The results are extraordinarily powerful and compelling; they are destined to change the management of patients with chronic heart failure for years to come.”

The new agent, an angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) – known as LCZ696 – has already been granted fast track status by the FDA. “Given the survival advantage of LCZ696 over currently available drugs, once this drug becomes available, it would be difficult to understand why physicians would continue to use traditional angiotensin converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) for the treatment of heart failure,” continuned Dr Packer.