The DAPA-VO2 trial, developed over the past three years, was promoted by Dr. Julio Núñez, Deputy Scientific Director of Incliva and the Cardiology Service of the Clinical Hospital of Valencia
Valencia, Wednesday 20.07.22
A. CASAÑ
The Health Research Institute Understand, of the Clinical Hospital of Valencia, promoted a clinical test which made it possible to show, for the first time and in a controlled framework, the short-term functional improvement attributable to dapagliflozin in stable patients with heart failure and ejection fraction (percentage of volume of blood pumped with each beat relative to total heart volume) reduced (ejection fraction < 40%).
The test DAPA-VO2, developed over the past three years, has been promoted by the Dr. Julio Nuñez -coordinator of the heart failure research group at Incline, where he is deputy scientific director; the Cardiology Department of the Clinical Hospital of Valence; member of CIBERCV; and full professor in the Department of Medicine at UV- and his findings were recently published in European Journal of Heart Failure.
The prevalence of heart failure is about 10% in people over 70 and is the leading cause of hospitalization among people over 65. It is a condition whose prevalence is increasing and whose survival is improving thanks to the availability of better treatments that have appeared in recent years.
In this study, the short-term effect of dapagliflozin 10 mg/day vs placebo on maximal functional capacity in stable patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Dapagliflozin is a drug that has been shown to reduce the risk of death and heart failure admissions in patients with heart failure.
This is a randomized double-blind clinical trial versus placebo. Three centers participated in this multicenter study (Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, Hospital de Denia in Alicante and Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria in Málaga) and a total of 90 patients were included. The main objective of the study was to assess functional capacity. All the patients included underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test at inclusion, 30 and 90 days after randomization in order to objectify their maximum functional capacity, evaluated by the peak of oxygen consumption.
The results obtained showed that the two at 30 and 90 days, a significant improvement in maximum functional capacity was observed in patients treated with dapagliflozin compared to those treated with placebo.
The development of the study had the participation of the Clinical Research and Clinical Trials Unit (UICEC INCLIVA), belonging to the Clinical Research and Clinical Trials Units (SCREN) platform promoted by the ‘Carlos III Health Institute, which was responsible for the management and monitoring of the clinical trial.