Semaglutide reduces internal heart pressures during physical exertion in patients with obesity and a specific type of heart failure, Mondosanità reported.
Published on November 8, 2026, in Nature Medicine, the CAMEO-SEMA trial evaluated 81 participants, including 47 women, over 52 weeks. Researchers administered 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide weekly or a placebo to test how the drug affects the heart during movement.
The trial utilized cardiac catheters to measure pulmonary wedge pressure during light exercise. At the start of the study, average pressures rose from 17.5 millimeters of mercury at rest to 31.7 during activity.
After one year, patients taking the medication experienced an average drop of 9.8 millimeters of mercury during exertion. The placebo group showed an increase of 0.9 millimeters of mercury. Resting pressures also dropped by an average of 7.1 millimeters of mercury in the treatment group.
A secondary cardiac magnetic resonance imaging analysis of 49 participants revealed improvements in left atrial and ventricular filling. These structural changes accompanied the drop in exercise pressures.
Researchers observed hemodynamic remission in 53.7 percent of the treated group, compared to 7.4 percent of participants receiving the placebo. Investigators defined this as pressures returning below set thresholds both at rest and during exercise.
However, Mondosanità noted that this term does not indicate complete disease disappearance or clinical remission. The trial involved 81 participants and did not measure hospitalizations, mortality rates, or long-term cures.
The findings specifically apply to individuals with obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
On October 3, 2025, Italy became the first country in the world to recognize obesity by law as a chronic, progressive, and relapsing disease, meaning a condition that persists over time, tends to worsen, and can recur under law no. 149/2025. In late August, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Renal Association (ERA) released their first guidelines linking heart diseases and chronic kidney disease.
A few weeks later, in late September, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) congress in Milan brought new data on GLP-1 receptor agonists, the class of drugs to which semaglutide belongs.
In Europe, about 100 million people live with chronic kidney disease, and all of them have a higher risk of heart problems according to the ESC. Regarding treatments, the indication for semaglutide is more circumscribed than certain headlines suggested.
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