The QUEST study

The QUEST Study (QUality of life and Extension of Survival Time) is an international prospective, blinded, veterinary clinical trial in the field of cardiology, which compared the effects of two commonly used treatments in the treatment of heart failure caused by the most common type of canine heart disease, Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease (MMVD) - also sometimes referred to as "endocardiosis" or "valvular insufficiency".

The study recruited a population of 260 client-owned dogs with congestive heart failure secondary to naturally-occurring MMVD, which were then randomised to receive either pimobendan (tradename "Vetmedin", Boehringer Ingelheim) plus furosemide or the ACEI-inhibitor benazepril plus furosemide. The principal outcome which the investigators sought to assess was survival, defined as a composite endpoint of cardiac death, treatment failure, or euthanasia due to heart failure.

The study, published in September 2008 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, found that dogs receiving pimobendan (tradename "Vetmedin", Boehringer Ingelheim) plus furosemide had a significantly longer median survival than those receiving benazepril plus furosemide (267 days vs 140 days, p=0.0099).
 
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