LAUSR

In this issue of the journal, L. Feyz and colleagues present the results of a small, randomised study investigating the safety and efficacy of renal denervation (RDN) in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction [1]. Primary safety endpoint was the combination of cardiovascular death, rehospitalisation for heart failure, and acute kidney injury at 6 months. Efficacy was defined as the change in iodine-123 labelled meta-iodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) heart-to-mediastinum ratio at 6 months. The authors demonstrate that RDN with the Vessix V2 Renal Denervation System (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA) was safe, but the primary efficacy endpoint was not different when comparing the RDN treated patients with the patients treated with optimal medical therapy. The study was small, only 50 patients, less than the anticipated 71 patients. However, collecting these data has been the result of a major endeavour. The study group screened 343 eligible patients over a period of 4 years. Patients randomised to RDN underwent the invasive procedure and all patients underwentMIBG scanning, with subsequentmeticulous follow-up for 6 months to assess outcomes. It is important that neutral or negative studies, albeit small, are published for readers to appreciate the outcomes as well as to prevent scientific information to become inadvertently skewed to positive results.