India, May 12 -- A major clinical trial, led by researchers from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has found that the low-cost heart drug digoxin may help reduce worsening heart failure in patients suffering from rheumatic heart disease (RHD), a condition that continues to affect millions in India.

The findings come from the study, "Digoxin in Patients With Symptomatic Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial", published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), a peer-reviewed medical journal on May 10.

The study was led by cardiologist Ganesan Karthikeyan from AIIMS and Niveditha Devasenapathy from Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, and Arpita Ghosh from The George Instit...