Understanding heart failure

Heart failure describes a condition where the heart is not pumping enough blood to meet the body's needs. Heart failure can also affect the heart's electrical function and lead to abnormal heart rhythms, called arrhythmias.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

What Heart Failure Patients Experience

• Shortness of breath

• Fatigue

• Swelling in legs, ankles or feet

• Rapid or irregular heartbeat

• Reduced ability to exercise

• Persistent cough or wheezing

TWO TYPES OF HEART FAILURE

HFrEF and HFpEF

HFrEF (Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction)

• <40% left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)

• The heart pumps less forcefully and ejects less blood volume. A normal LVEF is >50%.

• Focus of the ASPIRE-HF study

HFpEF (Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction)

• ≥50% left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)

• Although the LVEF is in a normal range, the heart is stiff and does not relax well to fill with blood between beats.

THE UNMET NEED

Progress, but risk remains

Guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) has improved outcomes, but patients continue to be at risk of worsening heart failure, hospitalization and potentially lethal arrhythmias.

No current therapy addresses the underlying electrical remodeling and instability of heart failure.

• ~40% of recently hospitalized patients on quadruple GDMT die or are re-hospitalized for heart failure within 12 months.¹

• ~1 in 2 patients with advanced heart failure have QTc prolongation, a marker of arrhythmia risk.²

• 6× higher rate of sudden cardiac death at 6 months with prolonged QTc (12% vs 2%).²

• 9× higher rate of pump-failure death at 6 months with prolonged QTc (18% vs 2%).²

1. Greene SJ, et al. JAMA Cardiol. 2026;11(3):293-297.
2. Vrtovec B, et al. Circulation. 2003;107(13):1764-1769. Advanced heart failure cohort (n=241), QTc >440 ms vs ≤440 ms.