Cor Vasa 2021, 63(6):715-718 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2021.069

Chronic heart failure and hypotensive effects of sacubitril/valsartan. A clinical case

Claudia Morabito^a, Marianna Gigliotti De Fazio^a, Francesca Parisi^a, Elisabetta Demurtas^a, Luana Orlando^a, Michele Scarano^b

^a Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

^b Cardiology Unit, Emergency Dept, Hospital "Madonna del Soccorso", San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy

Background: Heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a significant public health issue, affecting more than 2% of general population. Therapy includes multiple medications proven to decrease mortality and hospitalization rates. Despite strong guideline recommendations, dosing in routine clinical practice has traditionally failed to reach the same levels achieved in clinical trials. The same seems to occur with sacubitril/valsartan but the benefits are still satisfactory. Case presentation: We report the case of a 67-year-old male patient suffering from HFrEF resulting from dilated cardiomyopathy who started therapy with sacubitril/valsartan. The patient was unable to tolerate dose adjustments of the drug due to low blood pressure. Despite this limitation, good results in terms of quality of life and functional capacity have been reached after six months of treatment.

Conclusion: Sacubitril/valsartan improves quality of life in patients with heart failure even when target dose is not reached due to low blood pressure.

Keywords: Entresto™, Heart failure, Hypotension, Quality of life, Sacubitril/valsartan

Received: March 23, 2021; Revised: March 23, 2021; Accepted: June 6, 2021; Published: December 13, 2021  Show citation