Overview
- Presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans over the weekend, the TARTAN-HF trial showed that an NT-proBNP blood test, with echocardiography if elevated, can spot many missed cases of heart failure in people with diabetes.
- The randomized study enrolled more than 700 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes from two Scottish health boards and compared proactive screening with usual care.
- Within six months, 24.9% of those screened were diagnosed with heart failure versus 1% with usual care, and most cases were heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, which routine visits often miss.
- People in the screening arm started SGLT2 inhibitor drugs more often, rising from 24% to 39% by six months, and they had fewer hospitalizations for heart failure or deaths at 3.1% versus 6.8%.
- Investigators and company partners urged risk-based screening for high-risk diabetes, while calling for larger trials in other regions and formal reviews before wide adoption.