Renal arterial resistance index before and after vericiguat administration: Should it be considered the fantastic five?

Abstract

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a chronic-progressive disease. Once established, it is almost impossible to obtain a restitutio ad integrum of the cardiac function, but current strategies aim at slowing down the progression towards the terminal stages of the disease, which inevitably lead to the exitus. On the basis of these considerations, it appears clear that pharmacological interventions applied in this clinical condition should prevent first the development of the disease, by controlling the risk factors for HF thus reducing the onset of the disease, second slowing the disease evolution towards the terminal phases thus containing clinical symptoms and reducing the number of hospitalizations. In this scenario, the add-on therapy with vericiguat seems promising as reported in the VICTORIA study without affecting renal function. Several evidence indicates that renal arterial resistance index (RRI) seems to better reflect cardiovascular damage also in HF patients, thus affecting patients prognosis METHODS: In the present study we have analyzed the effect of vericiguat administration in 27 HF patients specifically evaluating RRI.

Results: Vericiguat signicantly reduces RRI.

Conclusions: The findings of the present study seems to indicate that vericiguat, beyond its primary mechanism of action, might offer an additional advantage in HF patients.

Keywords: Heart failure; Renal arterial resistance index; Renal function; Vericiguat.