A pilot Japanese study indicates use of a histamine blocker may slow progression of symptoms associated with heart failure, according to an article in the October 3 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

For the current study, researchers at Japan’s National Cardiovascular Center began with a unique hypothesis. Based on previous research, they speculated that blocking the effects of histamine released by damaged myocardium would slow development of heart failure. To prove their theory, they researched existing medical data for patients being treated for both chronic heart failure and gastroesophageal reflux disease. As suspected, patients taking famotidine for stomach problems seemed to have less severe heart failure symptoms than patients using other types of stomach medications.

To find out, they designed a prospective study in which 25 patients with both medical conditions were given famotidine and 25 patients were given an alternate medication called teprenone. Teprenone works by causing the stomach to secret more mucous to coat and protect itself against excess acid.

After 24 weeks, the researchers discovered that patients receiving 30 mg famotidine daily had less severe symptoms of chronic heart failure. All patients were examined by three independent cardiologists who were unaware of the treatment protocols.

Lead researcher Masafumi Kitakaze, MD, PhD, said although the initial results look promising, more research is needed: “We performed the present prospective study with only 50 [congestive heart failure] CHF patients,” said Kitakaze, director of the Cardiovascular Division at the National Cardiovascular Center. “Now we need to conduct a large-scale trial to confirm the present findings. The large-scale trial based on the results our present research may not help current heart failure patients because it takes time, but we hope it helps our children and grandchildren and others in the future.”

Gary Francis, MD, who did not participate in the research, is a cardiologist and heart failure expert at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic. He, too, cautioned that the benefits of famotidine remain unclear, noting that the current study was too limited to assess safety or what dose would have the best benefit-risk ratio.

Still, the research is important because it opens a new avenue of study in the ongoing effort to treat chronic heart failure, said Francis, who co-wrote an editorial that is published in conjunction with the research.