Patients diagnosed with heart failure (HF) often report decreases in muscle mass and strength in the arms and legs that can result in difficulties with walking, climbing stairs and performing routine daily tasks. For patients, this can pose an inconvenience or even severely restrict their quality of life. A study of a European cohort showed that patients experiencing this muscle wasting had a shorter life span than those with preserved muscle mass.
Our team’s study, “A SkeleTal Muscle Recovery Intervention With Dietary Protein in Heart Failure,” referred to as ASTRID-HF, is studying the effectiveness of a dietary protein supplementation intervention to help preserve the muscle mass that many HF patients report losing. Participants in the study are randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: dietary counseling only vs dietary counseling and one bottle of Ensure® supplement per day vs dietary counseling and a different carton of Ensure® supplement per day. Over the course of the six month study, which includes three in-person study visits and a series of telephone check-ins, our research team will assess the effect of protein supplementation on HF patients’ muscle mass using a type of scan called dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The goal is to determine whether dietary protein supplementation is an effective intervention to help support muscle mass in the arms and legs for patients with heart failure.
For more information regarding the study, please review the links below or contact the following research coordinators:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05627440?cond=Heart%20Failure&term=skeletal&locStr=Boston,%20MA&country=United%20States&state=Massachusetts&city=Boston&aggFilters=status:rec&rank=1
https://www.tuftsmedicine.org/research-clinical-trials/find-clinical-trials/astrid-hf
Abena Adwetewa-Badu
Abena.Adwetewa-Badu@tuftsmedicine.org
617-636-9458
Trisha Mukerjee
trisha.mukerjee@tuftsmedicine.org
