Beta-blockers for heart failure: where are we now?
The hypothesis that the long-term use of beta-blockers improves symptoms, cardiac function, and ejection fraction in patients with heart failure is increasingly being accepted. Multiple small studies have consistently demonstrated favorable outcomes with beta-blocker use, and a large-scale mortality study is now planned. However, important questions remain regarding which patients with heart failure should be treated and the mechanism by which beta-blockade exerts its beneficial effects. These questions undoubtedly need to be answered before physicians will be willing to prescribe these medications, the use of which is so counterintuitive.
Gottlieb
S S
SS
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015996:Survival Rate
D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists