A Study of Ivabradine in African-American/ Black Subjects With Heart Failure and Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction.

The goal of this study is to determine the impact of adding ivabradine therapy to the standard of care (SOC) in African-American/Black subjects with Heart Failure (HF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) on changes in heart rate (HR) from baseline (SOC alone). Changes in HR from baseline will be correlated with the changes from baseline in activity level of the subjects, as measured by both a standard 6-minute walk distance and an accelerometer device. The primary hypothesis is that ivabradine effectively reduces HR between baseline and day 57 in African-American/Black subjects. Because mean reductions of approximately 5 beat per minute (bpm) have been observed in the overall placebo-treated subjects in the SHIFT study as well as in the placebo-treated subjects of the subgroup analysis of non-African-American/Black subjects enrolled in the SHIFT study, we will test whether the mean reduction with ivabradine exceeds 5 bpm, and estimate the degree to which the mean reduction with ivabradine exceeds 5 bpm.