Evidence-based On-call

Congestive heart failure

Prevention

Once your patient has been stable for several months, consider amlodipine for dilated cardiomyopathy ^a

Why?

It reduces death and cardiovascular events ^a
There is no clear benefit for patients with heart failure due to ischaemic heart disease. ^d

Amlodipine reduces death in dilated cardiomyopathy

Patient	Treatment	Comparison	Outcome	CER	RRR (95% CI)	NNT (95% CI)
heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy ^a	amlodipine	placebo	death or cardiovascular morbidity at 3 years	37%	25% (0% to 43%)	11 (6 to 650)
			death at 3 years	31%	43% (19% to 60%)	7 (5 to 19)