increased reuse of diuretics, [only] around 20% of patients in both groups needed a top-up, presumably for symptom relief,” Biolo noted in the news release.
Overall, the study also found that “patients can be followed-up in the usual way,” she said. “And, as we do now, patients should be educated to seek medical help if they become breathless, get edema [swelling], or have sudden weight gain, which indicates fluid retention.”
But Imam wasn’t convinced that diuretics can be eliminated so easily.
In his experience, “even if patients miss diuretics for a few doses, they get recurrent symptoms and feel better almost immediately on resuming them, even in patients with stable heart failure,” he said.
Imam believes the study “is a radical diversion from traditional thinking and most clinicians would continue using diuretics to treat stable congestive heart failure.”
But another U.S. heart failure specialist was more encouraged by the Brazilian findings.
Dr. Marrick Kukin directs heart failure care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He agreed that