Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesMeta-analysis
Efficacy and Safety of Digitalis Glycosides in Heart Failure
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials
- placebo-controlled trials >1000 patients
- fixed-effects model
Authors' conclusion
Treatment with digitalis glycosides was associated with a lower risk of the composite of cardiovascular death or first worsening HF event in patients with HFmrEF or HFrEF, mainly through a lower risk of worsening HF events.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with Heart Failure with Mildly Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFmrEF) or HF with Reduced EF (HFrEF)
- Participants
- 9,013 patients · 3 studies
- Comparison
- Digitalis glycosides vs placebo
- Digitalis glycosiden = 4,510
- Placebon = 4,503reference
- Outcome
- Composite of:
- Time to CV death
- First worsening HF event
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Hazard ratio
0.85
95% CI 0.80–0.90
P < 0.001
Events by group
Digitalis glycoside vs Placebo
HR 0.85 (95% CI 0.80–0.90); P < 0.001
Further pooled results
| Outcome | Digitalis glycoside | Placebo | HR (95% CI) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First worsening HF event | 26% | 33% | 0.75 (0.69–0.81) | P < 0.001 | |
| CV events | 27% | 27% | 0.99 (0.92–1.07) | P = 0.81 | |
| All-cause death | 32% | 33% | 0.97 (0.90–1.04) | P = 0.41 | |
| 0.512Hazard ratio (log scale) |
Heterogeneity by trial, digitalis type or background HF therapy
- No statistically significant heterogeneity by trial, type of digitalis glycoside or extent of background HF therapy
Original publication
Efficacy and Safety of Digitalis Glycosides in Heart Failure. JAMA. Published 16 June 2026. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.7886
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it