Patients admitted to Australian hospitals for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction consistently miss out on lifesaving guideline-recommended therapies, leading cardiologists warn.

Among other serious shortcomings, almost half of those with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) eligible for an aldosterone antagonist did not receive one upon discharge, according to results from the first-of-its-kind study.

In addition, a significant proportion of patients were overlooked for ACEIs/ARBs and device therapies such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators, the researchers say.

“Hospitalisation appears to be a major route of therapy initiation, with recommended therapies infrequently being commenced in the year after discharge,” they wrote in the Internal Medicine Journal of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.