Should all heart attack patients take beta-blockers? Studies reveal contradictory results
While trials show beta-blockers help patients with impaired heart function, the impact on those with normally functioning hearts is unclear
A decades-old pill remains helpful for heart attack patients even with modern treatments that can prevent lasting damage to the heart muscle, two large trials have shown.
Two contradictory reports were presented at a cardiology meeting in Madrid, Spain, late last month and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
“It is not unusual for trials to yield different results,” said Dr Borja Ibanez of Spain’s National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, who led one of the trials.
“Somewhat uncommon is to see two trials with apparently divergent findings presented on the same day.”
Most important, Ibanez said, is the finding both teams agree on, which is that beta-blockers reduce the combined risk of another heart attack, heart failure or death in patients without heart failure, but with mildly impaired heart function.