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Dyspnea Case Study

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Protocol
Patients were randomized in block size of four as follows:
►TG: 16 patients received 1 gm of taurine capsule (Now Foods, USA) twice daily in addition to maximum tolerated doses of guideline directed medical therapy [ACE-I or ARBs, BBs, Loop Diuretics and MRAs] for two months.
►CG: 18 patients received only maximum tolerated doses of guideline directed medical therapy for two months.
At baseline patients underwent full clinical and laboratory assessment. A thorough patient history was taken. Assessment of functional capacity and degree of Dyspnea was done according to “NYHA class”. The Quality of life was evaluated by using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ). A 2 ml blood sample was obtained for …show more content…

Categorical data were summarized as percentages (%) or number (n). Comparison between groups was done using the unpaired t-test or Mann-Whitney test as appropriate. Comparison within each group (baseline versus after two months) was done using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Chi-Square test or Fisher's exact test were used for categorical variables. Percent change was calculated as follows:
[(current value – baseline value )/(baseline value)]x 100
Statistical significance was considered for p-value < 0.05.
Results:
From September 2014 to October 2015, a total of 94 patients admitted to CR unit were assessed for eligibility. 60 Patients fulfilled the criteria and 42 patients accepted to participate in the study with only 34 patients who continued to the end of the study.
At Baseline the two groups were comparable in all variables except for LVESV, patients in the CG had significantly higher LVESV values (p = 0.03), (table 1). Both groups were comparable for the medications administered except that the CG had higher number of patients receiving nitrates (p = 0.01), (table 2).
NT-proBNP
There was a significant decline in NT-proBNP levels after two months in both the TG (from 216.4 [89.4 - 363.2] to 120.1 [36.7 - 307.7], p=0.009) and CG (from 352.7 [130.9 - 601.9] to 208.82 [112.1 - 374.4], p=0.002). However, when comparing the percent change of NT-proBNP between the two groups, there was no significant

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