Post by Harvard Medical School

A medication used to treat type 2 diabetes significantly reduced the risk of heart failure in individuals who are genetically predisposed to cardiomyopathy. New research led by Harvard Medical School investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found that treatment with dapagliflozin reduced heart failure hospitalizations by over 80 percent in trial participants carrying these genetic variants. In noncarriers, the medication reduced hospitalizations by 32 percent. “Historically, identifying a genetic variant for cardiomyopathy mostly meant telling a patient they were at high risk and not having a specific preventative therapy to offer,” said co-first author Shinwan Kany, visiting scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute. “These data show we do have tools to lower risk in these individuals.” The results highlight the growing potential for incorporating genetic screening into heart failure prevention strategies. The researchers emphasize that further research is needed to determine if dapagliflozin is equally effective in cardiomyopathy variant carriers who do not have diabetes.