The first investigator-initiated study of remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring has found that it improves quality of life and reduces heart failure hospitalisations in patients with chronic heart failure. The findings are presented today in a late breaking science session at Heart Failure 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and published in The Lancet. Principal investigator Jasper Brugts of Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands said: "Pulmonary artery pressure is a marker of haemodynamic congestion, which occurs several weeks before symptoms develop, providing a window of opportunity to prevent overt congestion and subsequent hospitalisation. In MONITOR-HF, physicians set a haemodynamic monitoring target which enabled them to provide tailored therapies such as diuretics and other medications." Brugts said: "More than 85% of participants with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction were on beta-blockers, renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. The uptake of angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors (ARNI) and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2) was high and increased during the course of follow-up, with 60% of controls on ARNI and 30% on SGLT2 inhibitors at 12 months. This level of treatment means that any additional benefit of pulmonary artery pressure monitoring was really on top of appropriate levels of guideline directed medical therapy." He concluded: "Pulmonary artery pressure monitoring showed a substantial and significant effect on quality of life and heart failure hospitalisations which is highly relevant for patients, physicians and hospitals. The principle of management by exception ensures that physicians only need to respond to patients outside their threshold window, making this an efficient method with a low time requirement."
