• Improvement in echocardiographic indices of diastolic dysfunction [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

• Improvement in 6 minute walk test [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Patient global assessment [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Background:

Almost half of all patients with heart failure (HF) have preserved systolic function (PSHF) or heart failure with normal ejection fraction (HFNEF). Some of these have valvular abnormalities such as severe mitral or aortic regurgitation, severe anaemia, thyrotoxicosis or rarer tropical causes for heart failure. However, the majority of those with PSHF often have echocardiographic evidence of impaired diastolic function i.e. impaired relaxation and increased stiffness. This diastolic dysfunction may be related to age, hypertension or ischaemia. There is little evidence for any effective therapy in this large HF population despite randomised trials comparing placebo to ACE inhibitors i.e. perindopril in PEP-HF or angiotensin receptor blockers i.e.

candesartan in the CHARM Preserved trial. There are also ongoing studies of aldosterone antagonists in diastolic heart failure i.e. eplerenone vs placebo in TOPCAT which continues to recruit.

In the absence of a strong evidence base, many physicians treat these patients with drugs that slow the heart rate, namely the calcium channel blocker verapamil and beta blockers. This has the effect of prolonging diastole or filling time and theoretically improving stroke volume thus reducing left ventricular end diastolic pressures (LVEDP) with resultant drop in wall stress and therefore less stimulus for myocardial fibrosis which exacerbates diastolic dysfunction by impeding compliance.

Hypothesis:

An alternative mechanism for slowing the heart rate is with ivabradine, a novel If channel blocker which acts purely on the sino atrial node with a mean heart rate lowering of 10 bpm in angina patients. This may result in improved diastolic filling which could be demonstrate by echocardiography, lower pulmonary capillary wedge pressures, which could be determined by measuring the E:E' ratio using tissue Doppler techniques, improving effort tolerance, estimated by assessing change in distance walked over 6 minutes and both a physician assessment using NYHA score as well as a patient Global Assessment and possibly better quality of life, determined by the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaires.

Other theoretical improvements could be in the degree of stiffness or fibrosis due to reduced LV wall stress secondary to the longer filling time. This could be assessed using surrogates of wall strain such as brain natruretic peptide (BNP), wall stress as measured by strain rate imaging on echocardiography.