Results of the MHH-IIT DIGIT-HF published in the New England Journal

The DIGIT-HF trial is an international, multicenter clinical trial led by the Department of Cardiology and Angiology at MHH (principal investigators: Prof. Bauersachs and Prof. Bavendiek). The trial involves the Institute of Biometry, the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, and the Center for Clinical Studies (ZKS), as well as clinics in Germany, Austria, and Serbia. According to the German Medicines Act (AMG), the sponsor was MHH/ZKS. The study began in 2015 and received financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, now the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space [BMFTR]), the Braukmann-Wittenberg Heart Foundation, and the German Heart Foundation, totaling around seven million euros.

Results: Additional therapy with digitoxin reduces mortality and hospitalizations due to heart failure in patients with advanced heart failure (HFrEF). These results were published on August 29, 2025, in the New England Journal of Medicine.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2415471

The study results were also presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Madrid at the end of August 2025 in the Hot Line Session, where new clinical studies that promise significant changes in patient treatment outcomes are presented.