Background: Obesity increases the risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Tirzepatide, a long-acting agonist of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors, causes considerable weight loss, but data are lacking with respect to its effects on cardiovascular outcomes.
Method: In this international, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, 731 patients with heart failure, an ejection fraction of at least 50%, and a BMI of at least 30 to receive tirzepatide (up to 15 mg subcutaneously once per week) or placebo for at least 52 weeks. The two primary end points were a composite of adjudicated death from cardiovascular causes or a worsening heart-failure event (assessed in a time-to-first-event analysis) and the change from baseline to 52 weeks in the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire clinical summary score (KCCQ-CSS; scores range 0–100, with higher scores indicating better quality of life).
Results: A total of 364 patients were assigned to the tirzepatide group and 367 to the placebo group; the median duration of follow-up was 104 weeks.
Adjudicated death from cardiovascular causes or a worsening heart-failure event occurred in 36 patients (9.9%) in the tirzepatide group and in 56 patients (15.3%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.62; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41–0.95; p = 0.026).
Worsening heart-failure events occurred in 29 patients (8.0%) in the tirzepatide group and in 52 patients (14.2%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.34–0.85), and adjudicated death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 8 patients (2.2%) and 5 patients (1.4%), respectively (hazard ratio, 1.58; 95% CI, 0.52–4.83). At 52 weeks, the mean (±SD) change in the KCCQ-CSS was 19.5±1.2 in the tirzepatide group as compared with 12.7±1.3 in the placebo group (between-group difference, 6.9; 95% CI, 3.3–10.6; p < 0.001).
Adverse events (mainly gastrointestinal) leading to discontinuation of the trial drug occurred in 23 patients (6.3%) in the tirzepatide group and in 5 patients (1.4%) in the placebo group.
Conclusion: Treatment with tirzepatide led to a lower risk of a composite of death from cardiovascular causes or worsening heart failure than placebo and improved health status in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity.
(Funded by Eli Lilly; SUMMIT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04847557.)
Shown is the cumulative incidence of death from cardiovascular causes or a worsening heart-failure event (the composite primary end point), assessed in a time-to-first-event analysis, among 364 patients who received tirzepatide and 367 patients who received placebo. The inset shows the same data on an expanded y-axis.