Abstract 13745: Heart Failure is Associated With Depletion of Core Intestinal Microbiota

Introduction: Despite current medical treatment approaches, mortality of chronic heart failure (HF) remains high. Novel treatment modalities are thus urgently needed. A recent theory proposes a possible impact of the intestinal microbiome on the incidence and clinical course of HF. This study sought to investigate, if there are specific changes of the intestinal microbiome in HF patients. Methods and Results: The intestinal microbiome of 20 patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction due to ischemic or dilated cardiomyopathy was investigated applying high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Microbial profiles were compared to those of healthy matched controls (n=20). According to the Shannon diversity index (measuring the intra-individual alpha-diversity) based on the distribution of operational taxonomic units, HF cases showed a nominally significantly lower diversity index compared to controls (Pnom.=0.01), testing for genera abundance showed a tendency towards a decreased alpha di...