IRON HEART v1.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Immediate effects of intravenous IRON therapy in patients with systolic HEART failure and iron deficiency as evaluated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: An Observational Prospective Study IRON HEART

• IRAS ID

  327457

• Contact name

  Andrew Flett

• Contact email

  andrew.flett@uhs.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University Hospital Southampton NHS FT

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Heart failure is a medical condition that results in poor pumping strength of the heart. Most common causes are a recent or previous heart attack, abnormal heart rhythms, severely damaged heart valves. Sometimes it is not clear what has caused the heart to pump so poorly.
  
  Over the last ten years, clinical research into heart failure has improved keeping patients alive, out of hospital and living a good quality of life for longer. This is in part due to clinical studies informing us that a combination of these medications: beta blockers, mineralocorticoid antagonists, sodium-glucose transport inhibitors II and one of the following: Angiotensin II inhibitors or Angiotensin receptor blocker or Angiotensin Receptor Neprilysin Inhibitor have improved survival in heart failure patients.

  Heart failure patients commonly have iron deficiency, a poor marker for quality of life, risk of worsening symptoms and death from heart failure. Clinical studies have noted that giving intravenous iron to heart failure patients who are iron deficient can lead to improved quality of life, reduced interference to their daily lives from symptoms and reduced admission to hospital. It is now recommended by guidelines to routinely screen patients for iron deficiency.

  Clinical studies in mouse hearts and specially grown human heart cells have shown that giving intravenous iron improves the cell function, reverses some of the abnormal swelling of the heart muscle and even improves the pumping action. One small study has noted that giving patients intravenous iron improved the pumping strength of the heart but failed to be reproduced in a larger study.
  
  Our study looks into whether people who have poorly pumping hearts and are iron deficient improve the strength at which the heart pumps by performing an imaging test called a cardiac MRI after giving them intravenous iron.

• REC name

  West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/WM/0264

• Date of REC Opinion

  13 Feb 2024

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion