Beta Blockers Save
Lives in Long Run
Reduce deaths years after
a heart attack
The lifesaving effects
of beta blocker drugs for many people who have heart attacks or
major heart rhythm disturbances last a lot longer than has been
thought, a recent study finds.
It is long been known
that beta blockers, so called because they reduce the work of heart
muscle by blocking activity of stress-related neurotransmitters
such as epinephrine, lower the death rate in the hours and days
after a heart attack. Now a report in Circulation: Journal
of the American Heart Association shows that lives are
saved even years later, not only for heart attack patients but also
for those whose heart rhythm is irregular enough to raise the risk
of sudden, fatal cardiac arrest.
"What we have added is
that they have ongoing benefits remote from an immediate myocardial
infarction [heart attack]," says Dr. Kristin E. Ellison, assistant
professor of medicine at Brown Medical School and lead author of
the journal report. "The median time of enrollment in our study
was 30-something months."
Over that period, heart
attack patients who were given beta blockers consistently did better
than those who were not. The death rate for beta blocker patients
was 16 percent lower after two years and 34 percent lower after
five years, compared to patients who did not get the drugs.
Study
Reinforces Current Recommendations For Beta-Blocker Usage
The finding will not cause
any dramatic change in treatment, but it adds powerful reinforcement
to current recommendations for use of beta blockers in a specific
patient group, Ellison says. "Hopefully, everyone is prescribing
beta blockers to this patient population," she says. "There are
no harmful effects and clear benefits, so the drugs should not be
withheld from this patient population."
All of the more than 2,000
patients in the study had suffered heart attacks that substantially
reduced the heart's ability to pump blood. Some were also found
to have abnormally fast, irregular heartbeats, or tachycardia, which
can cause sudden death.
The primary purpose of
the study was to see whether careful monitoring of the heart's activity
could save lives, but the researchers also compared survival rates
of patients who did or did not get beta blockers and came up with
the successful results.
Beta
Blockers Help to Prevent Fatal Arrhythmias
One reason why beta blockers
save lives is that they prevent fatal arrhythmias, Ellison says,
but that is not the complete explanation. "It is probably a combination
of all of the effects of beta blockers, since the study found not
just a specific anti-arrhythmia benefit but a total mortality benefits,"
she says.
"This is adding to the
body of knowledge we already have," says Dr. Robert Bonow, professor
of medicine at Northwestern University and president of the American
Heart Association. "These drugs are very helpful in patients
who have a damaged heart or weak heart function."
Bonow says he would be
inclined to prescribe a beta blocker for any heart attack patient.
But the evidence of the new study shows that the effect is strongest
in cases when the heart is damaged enough to reduce its pumping
ability by 40 percent, he says.
Always consult your physician
for more information.
Online
Resources
(Our Organization is not
responsible for the content of Internet sites.)
American
Heart Association
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Circulation:
Journal of the American Heart Association
National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
|
December 2002
Study
Reinforces Current Recommendations For Beta-Blocker Usage
Beta
Blockers Help to Prevent Fatal Arrhythmias
Heart
Failure Lab Test Gets FDA Approval
Online
Resources
In Other News About Your
Heart:
Heart
Failure Lab Test Gets FDA Approval
It detects elevated
peptide levels
The US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new lab test to
help physicians diagnose congestive heart failure.
The Roche Diagnostics
test, named Elecsys proBNP Immunoassay, detects elevated levels
of a heart peptide, NT-proBNP, which could indicate congestive heart
failure. The higher the peptide level, the more serious the condition.
The earlier congestive
heart failure is treated, the better the chances a patient will
survive. The just-approved test will allow physicians to quickly
diagnose whether a person's symptoms indicate heart failure, or
another condition such as lung disease.
The FDA
cleared the test following clinical trials involving more than 2,000
people in the United States and Europe.
Congestive heart failure
affects up to 2 percent of the population. It is often fatal, especially
among the elderly.
Always consult your physician
for more information.
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