A recent clinical study showed that administering a single dose of intravenous iron may help improve physical capacity in heart failure patients with iron deficiency, suggesting that correcting this deficiency could alleviate some symptoms limiting their daily activities.
Researchers from the Cardiovascular Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the United States, in a study whose results were published yesterday Sunday in the scientific journal "Circulation", stated that the trial included 65 patients suffering from heart failure and iron deficiency, of whom 44 received a 1000-milligram intravenous dose of "ferric derisomaltose", while 21 patients received a placebo.
The results, after following participants for 12 weeks, showed that patients who received iron recorded an improvement of about 10 percent in maximum oxygen consumption, which is an indicator of the body's ability to use oxygen during physical exertion, while no significant change was recorded in the other group.
The group that received treatment also showed improvement in additional indicators, including the distance a patient could cover during a six-minute walk test, and the ability to tolerate physical exertion.
The researchers clarified that the results reinforce the importance of studying the role of iron deficiency correction in improving functional capacity in heart failure patients, pointing to the need for broader trials to assess the extent to which these benefits persist in the long term, given the limited number of participants in the study.
Intravenous iron infusion is a medical procedure used to compensate for iron deficiency in the body, by administering it directly into the bloodstream through a vein, rather than taking it in tablet form, and it is resorted to in cases where oral iron supplements are insufficient or unsuitable, or when the condition requires compensating for the deficiency with specific doses under medical supervision.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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