Regular Wine Consumption in Chronic Heart Failure: Impact on Outcomes, Quality of Life, and Circulating Biomarkers

Background —Moderate, regular alcohol consumption is generally associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events but data in patients with chronic heart failure (HF) are scarce. We evaluated the relations between wine consumption, health status, circulating biomarkers and clinical outcomes in a large Italian population of patients with chronic HF enrolled in a multicenter clinical trial. Methods and Results —A brief questionnaire on dietary habits was administered at baseline to 6973 patients enrolled in the GISSI-HF trial. The relations between wine consumption, fatal and non-fatal clinical endpoints, quality of life, symptoms of depression and circulating biomarkers of cardiac function and inflammation (in subsets of patients) were evaluated with simple and multivariable adjusted statistical models. Almost 56% of the patients reported drinking at least one glass of wine per day. After adjustment, clinical outcomes were not significantly different in the four groups of patients. However, patients with more frequent wine consumption had a significantly better perception of health status (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) score, adjusted p<0.0001), less frequent symptoms of depression (Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) scale, adjusted p=0.01), and lower plasma levels of biomarkers of vascular inflammation (osteoprotegerin and C-terminal pro-endothelin-1, adjusted p<0.0001, and pentraxin-3, p=0.01) after adjusting for possible confounders. Conclusions —We show for the first time in a large cohort of patients with chronic HF that moderate wine consumption is associated with a better perceived and objective health status, lower prevalence of depression, and less vascular inflammation, but does not translate into a more favorable clinical 4-year outcomes. Clinical Trial Registration —URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT0033633.