About this trial
Background:
Intravenous (IV) loop-diuretics have been a key component in treating pulmonary edema since the nineteen sixties and has a Class 1 recommendation in the 2021 European Society of Cardiology guidelines for heart failure. Conversely, vasodilation was downgraded in the treatment of acute heart failure due to a lack of trials that compare vasodilation with loop-diuretics in a hyperacute clinical setting. This clinical equipoise will be tested in a trial including patients with pulmonary congestion immediately at hospital admission.
Primary objective:
To determine the superior strategy of loop-diuretics (furosemide), vasodilation (nitrates) or the combination during emergency treatment.
Design: Investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial with 1:1:1 allocation.
Intervention:
Intervention-phase will last 6 hours from study-inclusion, and patients will be allocated to one of three groups:
* Boluses of 40 mg IV furosemide + nitrate-placebo as soon as possible and repeated up to 10 times. * Boluses of 3 mg IV isosorbide dinitrate + furosemide-placebo as soon as possible. * Boluses of both 3 mg IV isosorbide dinitrate + of 40 mg as soon as possible.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
Age ≥ 18 years
Acute (within minutes to days) onset or worsening of subjective dyspnea*
Systolic blood pressure ≥100 mmHg
Oxygen saturation <94% or need of oxygen
Disqualifiers
More than 40 mg IV furosemide within the last three hours before randomization including prehospital treatment.
More than 3 hours from hospital-admission to randomization
Ongoing ventricular taky- or brady-arrythmias or supraventricular arrhythmias with HR > 180 or < 40 bpm.
Suspected severe infection or sepsis.
Trial design
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Furosemide Injection
DrugA diuretic (iv furosemide) strategy for decongestion in acute heart failure
Isosorbide Dinitrate
DrugVasodilation (iv isosorbide dinitrate) strategy for decongestion in acute heart failure
Furosemide and isosorbide dinitrate
DrugVasodilation (iv isosorbide dinitrate) strategy for decongestion in acute heart failure AND A diuretic (iv furosemide) strategy for decongestion in acute heart failure
Treatment groups
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
Days alive and outside hospital
The primary end point is the number of days alive and out of hospital during the 30-day period after the hospital-visit. The choice of this end point allow capturing the burden of acute heart failure in terms of mortality, hospital length of stay, and early readmission to the hospital. Patients who died before day 30 will be counted as having zero days alive and out of hospital. A return visit to the emergency department was considered as 1 day in the hospital, using the same approach as a recent trial of acute heart failure.
Secondary outcomes
Intensification of therapy defined as at least one of: mechanical ventilation, renal replacement therapy, vasopressors, inotropes, or mechanical heart failure treatment.
Clinical benefit at 30 days, consisting of a composite of 1. All-cause death, 2. Intubation with mechanical ventilation, and 3. rehospitalization, assessed using a 'win-ratio' approach.
NT-proBNP at day 1-3
Early Warning Score measured 6-24 hours after start of intervention.
Other outcomes
Echocardiographic substudy
parameters at day 0-3: LVEF, TAPSE, TR-gradient, VCI-size and compressibility, e/é. At Hvidovre and Bispebjerg sites, a transthoracic echocardiography will be performed at 12-72 hours after randomization. o Multiple B-lines in at least two areas on lung ultrasound identifying interstitial syndrome (yes/no) after 12-72 hours.
Research biobank-parameters
IL-6, IL-10, copeptin, Soluble CD146 \[43\], carbohydrate antigen-125 \[44\], adrenomedullin \[45\], NT-proBNP \[46\], Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) \[47\]. Several biomarkers will be analyzed from the research biobank. Blood will be collected at admission day 1 (T24). The research biobank will be analyzed for biomarkers of inflammation, organ injury and other organ specific markers. The research biobank will only be collected at Bispebjerg and Hvidovre sites.
FiO2, Blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate after 1 hour
Myocardial infarction within 48 hours
Assessed by the treating clinician
Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Rigshospitalet, Denmark
Lead sponsor
Hvidovre University Hospital
Sponsor institution
Zealand University Hospital
Collaborator
Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre
Collaborator
Bispebjerg Hospital
Collaborator
Herlev Hospital
Collaborator