Chronic Heart Failure | Treatment Algorithms | Claims Data Analysis | US | 2015
Chronic heart failure (CHF) describes the long-term management of heart failure outside of the hospital setting. The disease progression of CHF is a gradual process that is heavily influenced by patient comorbidities such as hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), diabetes, and age. The primary goals of CHF treatment are to prolong patient survival and reduce the risk of hospitalization due to the rapid worsening of symptoms that characterize acute heart failure. First-line treatment of CHF usually involves an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, oral beta blocker, and oral diuretic. The addition of second- or third-line agents, such as a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist or a digitalis glycoside, is often dictated by risk factors, disease severity, and, to a lesser extent, patient symptoms. Using national patient-level claims data, this report analyzes physician adherence to CHF treatment guidelines by exploring the use of key therapies in the newly diagnosed and recently treated CHF patient populations. With respect to newly diagnosed patients, the report provides a quantitative analysis of treatment patterns and share by line of therapy, as well as progression between lines, duration of treatment on each line, and use of concomitant treatment. For recently treated patients, the report quantifies a drug’s source of business compared with that of its competitors and details which drugs precede others by analyzing add-versus-switch patterns. Additional analyses explore persistency and compliance by brand.