ESC cardiologists 'intrigued' by novel approach to heart failure
Monday, January 30, 2012 - 17:30
in Health & Medicine
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) welcomes an "intriguing" study, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, featuring a completely novel approach for improving endothelial function in heart failure1. In the "hypothesis generating" study, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) delivered significant improvements in peak post ischemic blood flow in the arm, a trend for improvement in peak post ischemic blood flow in the leg, but failed to show benefits in exercise capacity and several inflammatory markers. Despite such conflicting data, ESC spokespersons believe that further exploration of UCDA is now justified in larger populations of heart failure patients.