Varying Effects of Spironolactone When Added to Standard Medication Therapy in Heart Failure Patients
Numerous studies have been conducted on the use of Spironolactone in heart failure patients and the varying effects associated with the medication. Spironolactone is a potassium sparing diuretic that was initially used to treat patients with edema and hypertension. Recent studies have suggested that when added to a standard medication therapy regimen, Spironolactone, can reduce death rates for patients with heart failure, especially after a heart attack (Heart failure, 2014). However, some article results within this research are contradictory because the source does not hold much weight in terms of evidence. It has been suggested that…show more content… (2014) reviewed data on spironolactone use in heart failure in respect of preserved ejection fraction. The study was a “Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure with an Aldosterone Antagonist (TOPCAT) trial” that helped them determine whether treatment with spironolactone would improve clinical outcomes in patients with symptomatic heart failure and a relatively preserved ejection fraction (Pitt et al., 2014). It used a randomized control trial to experiment and collect data, but the reliability and validity of the findings were inadequate in terms of application to a broad spectrum of patients. It was reported that “the lack of favorable evidence from clinical-outcome trials offer no specific recommendations for the management of heart failure in such patients except for attention to coexisting conditions” (Pitt et al., 2014, p. 1384). In the same study it is also suggested that “patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction and those with myocardial infarction complicated by heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction, mineralocorticoid-receptor antagonists have been shown to be effective in reducing overall mortality and hospitalizations for heart failure” (Pitt et al., 2014, p. 1384). As a result, the evidence presented in the article is not a realistic representation of the general heart failure patient