Impact of ischaemic aetiology on the efficacy of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in patients with iron deficiency and acute heart failure: insights from the AFFIRM-AHF trial.

AIMS

In AFFIRM-AHF, intravenous ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) reduced heart failure (HF) hospitalisations and improved quality of life versus placebo in iron-deficient patients stabilised after an acute HF episode. This analysis explored the effects of FCM versus placebo in patients with ischaemic and non-ischaemic HF aetiology.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We included 1082 patients from AFFIRM-AHF: 590 with ischaemic HF (defined as investigator-reported ischaemic HF aetiology and/or prior acute myocardial infarction and/or prior coronary revascularisation) and 492 with non-ischaemic HF. The prevalences of male sex, comorbidities, and history of HF were higher in the ischaemic versus non-ischaemic HF subgroup. Annualised event rates for the primary composite outcome of total HF hospitalisations and cardiovascular death with FCM versus placebo were 65.3 versus 100.6 per 100 patient-years in the ischaemic HF subgroup (rate ratio [RR] 0.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.47-0.89, p = 0.007) and 58.3 versus 52.5 in the non-ischaemic HF subgroup (RR 1.11, 95% CI 0.75-1.66, p = 0.60) (p  = 0.039). An interaction between HF aetiology and treatment effect was also observed for the secondary outcome of total HF hospitalisations (p  = 0.038). A nominal increase in quality of life, assessed using the 12-item Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, was observed with FCM versus placebo, within each subgroup.

CONCLUSIONS

Heart failure hospitalisations and cardiovascular deaths occurred at a higher rate in patients with ishaemic versus those with non-ischaemic HF and were reduced by FCM versus placebo only in ischaemic patients. Further studies are needed to assess the role of aetiology in FCM efficacy.