UMCG | DECISION
Aim
The aim of DECISION (Digoxin Evaluation in Chronic Heart Failure) is to investigate the effect of low doses of digoxin added to the treatment of heart failure in a large-scale research.
Heart Failure
Heart failure is a serious heart disease that occurs frequently. It is estimated that 1 in 5 people suffer from heart failure. Symptoms include fluid accumulation, lack of stamina, and shortness of breath. The prognosis for these patients is poor and it often leads to (re)hospitalisation.
Digoxin
The medicine digoxin is the oldest and cheapest medicine for treating heart failure, but its use has declined sharply in recent years. There are several reasons for this, amongst which a study that showed that patients treated with high doses of digoxin did not perform better than patients without this drug (placebo). However, further research has shown that patients treated with low doses of digoxin did have a better life expectancy.
UMCG
ZonMW/Hartstichting (the Dutch Heart Foundation) has provided a 3 million euro grant from the Good Use of Medicines programme to the research consortium. The consortium is led by professors Dirk Jan van Veldhuisen, Peter van der Meer and Michiel Rienstra, who will carry out the DECISION study. The professors are all affiliated to the cardiology department of the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). They aim to demonstrate that patients with heart failure who are treated with low doses of digoxin, are less likely to be re-admitted to hospital or to die as a result of heart failure.
Requester
- UMCG coordinates this project
Grant
- ZonMW – Good Use of Medicines – Big Trials
