Abstract
Many new clinical trials about the effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in heart failure (HF) patients have shown inconsistent results. Therefore, a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was performed to determine the benefits of omega-3 PUFAs in HF patients. Articles were obtained from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. RCTs comparing omega-3 PUFAs with placebo for HF were included. Two reviewers independently extracted the data from the selected publications. The I2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. The pooled mean difference and associated 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and a fixed or random-effects model was used for the meta-analysis. A total of nine RCTs involving 800 patients were eligible for inclusion. Compared with patients taking placebo, HF patients who received omega-3 PUFAs experienced decreased brain natriuretic peptide levels and serum norepinephrine levels. Although the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and clinical outcomes (Tei index, peak oxygen consumption) did not improve, subgroup analysis showed that the LVEF increased in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients. Overall, omega-3 PUFA supplements might be beneficial in HF patients, especially in DCM patients, but further studies are needed to confirm these benefits.
Highlights
Heart failure (HF) is a common and growing public health problem worldwide
Data from our meta-analysis indicated that additional omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) supplementation led to lower brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and serum norepinephrine (SNE) levels, which would represent evidence of the benefits of omega-3 PUFAs in patients with HF
The result of our meta-analysis showed that omega-3 PUFAs could decrease BNP and NT-proBNP
Summary
Heart failure (HF) is a common and growing public health problem worldwide. At present, approximately 26 million people are living with HF in the world. Nutrients 2017, 9, 18 of that analysis, there have been many new clinical trials about the effect of omega-3 PUFAs in HF patients with different outcomes and inconsistent results [11,12,13,14]. For this reason, to assess a greater number of studies and more comprehensively determine the benefits of omega-3 PUFAs in HF patients, we performed a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to systematically evaluate the effects of omega-3 PUFAs in HF patients. We investigated some new outcomes, such as brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and serum norepinephrine (SNE) levels, Tei index, and peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2 ) for analysis
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