ESC 25 Hot Line Discussion: DIGIT-HF: Cardiac Glycosides in HFrEF

ESC Congress 2025 - Digitoxin reduced the risk of all-cause mortality and hospitalisation in patients with worsening heart failure.

Dr Harriette Van Spall (McMaster University, CA) sits down with Prof Udo Bavendiek to explore the DIGIT-HF trial, investigating whether digitoxin can improve outcomes in patients with advanced chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

This landmark study randomizes 1212 patients with advanced chronic HFrEF across multiple centers, comparing digitoxin therapy (targeting serum concentrations of 8-18 ng/mL) against placebo, both administered alongside guideline-directed standard of care treatment. The trial focuses on patients with NYHA functional class III-IV symptoms and LVEF ≤40%, or those with NYHA class II and LVEF ≤30%.

Findings showed that digitoxin significantly reduced a composite of all-cause death and hospitalisation in patients with worsening heart failure.

Recorded on-site at ESC Congress 2025, Madrid.
Editors: Jordan Rance, Yazmin Sadik.
Video Specialists: Dan Brent, Tom Green, Mike Knight, Oliver Miles, David Ben-Harosh.
Support: This is an independent interview produced by Radcliffe Cardiology.

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