Expert opinion of the Heart Failure Working Group of the Polish Cardiac Society on the use of dapagliflozin in the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Heart failure (HF) is a global health problem inherent in an ageing population with coexisting cardiovascular diseases. Based on the data from the National Health Fund (NFZ) currently, approximately 1.2 million Polish people suffer from HF, and 140,000 of them die annually. Recently Poland was ranked 5th among the European Union countries in terms of the number of patients with diagnosed HF and 1st in terms of the number of HF hospitalizations (547 per 100,000 population) among 34 countries associated in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In recent years, significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of HF with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF), which has resulted in a reduction in cardiovascular and total mortality. Despite these advantages, 5-year survival in the course of HF is still worse than that observed in some types of cancer, both in the population of men and women. Hence, the search for drugs improving the prognosis in this group of patients is still ongoing. Sodium-glucose co-transporter type 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors are a new group of drugs that will undoubtedly be a milestone in the treatment of patients with HFrEF. The presented experts' opinion includes the history of dapagliflozin, which from a drug dedicated in treatment of type 2 diabetes has become one of the most effective drugs improving prognosis, quality of life and reducing the number of hospitalizations in patients with HF. This document contains the opinion from the experts of the Heart Failure Association of the Polish Cardiac Society on the most important studies with dapagliflozin and the indications for its use.