Fish Oil Cut Heart Failure Morbidity, Death in GISSI-HF
In same study, statin showed no benefit.
Cardiology News (read full article)
Volume 6, Issue 9, Page 1 (September 2008)
MUNICH — Supplementation with a single daily low-dose fish oil capsule in patients with chronic heart failure resulted in modest but clinically meaningful reductions in mortality and cardiovascular hospitalization in a nearly 7,000-patient randomized trial presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
In a surprise finding, the same Italian study, known as GISSI-HF, concluded that rosuvastatin at 10 mg/day had no effect on mortality or hospital admission for cardiovascular events, suggesting that patients with chronic heart failure should not be started on statins. (See story on p. 9.)
In GISSI-HF, 6,975 patients with New York Heart Association class II-IV chronic heart failure were randomized in double-blind fashion to 1 g/day of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) in the form of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid or to placebo. The participants were on standard background therapy with the agents of proven efficacy in heart failure.
All-cause mortality after a median 3.9 years of follow-up was 27% in the n-3 PUFA group and 29% in controls, for a significant adjusted 9% relative risk reduction in the n-3 PUFA group, reported Dr. Luigi Tavazzi, chair of the GISSI-HF steering committee and professor of cardiology at the University of Pavia (Italy).
The co-primary end point in GISSI-HF was death or cardiovascular hospitalization, which occurred in 57% of the n-3 PUFA cohort and in 59% of those on placebo, for an 8% relative risk reduction that did not reach statistical significance.
In all, 44 patients needed to be treated with n-3 PUFA for 3.9 years in order to prevent one additional death or cardiovascular hospitalization, whereas 56 patients needed to be treated in order to prevent one death. Those are fairly high numbers, but it’s a trouble-free therapy, according to Dr. Tavazzi.
