A small subgroup of African-American heart failure patients with recovered ejection fraction (HFrecEF) and receiving standard of care to improve their ejection fraction (EF) had favorable outcomes, a recent study found. The African-American Heart Failure Trial characterized patients who had significant improvement in their EF during the first 6 months of follow-up. The effects of improvement in EF on all-cause mortality, first, and all hospitalizations were analyzed. Study details include:

• 59 participants with HFrecEF (improvement in EF from <35% to >40% in 6 months) were compared to 259 with HF and persistently reduced EF (HFrEF), defined as EF ≤40% at 6 months follow-up.

• Compared to HFrEF, participants with HFrecEF had a non-significant trend towards lower mortality (HR, 0.16), fewer first HF hospitalizations (HR, 0.22), fewer recurrent HF hospitalizations (HR, 0.13), similar first all-cause hospitalizations (HR, 0.67), and fewer recurrent all-cause hospitalizations (HR, 0.41).