Blood Pressure Drug Saves Lives for Heart Failure Patients
Blood Pressure Drug Saves Lives for Heart Failure Patients
March 7, 2000 (Lake Worth, Fla.) -- A new study shows that a blood-pressure medication that physicians have traditionally been reluctant to use in people with heart failure can significantly improve their chances of survival and their quality of life.
The drug, Toprol XL (metoprolol), also shortened the amount of time these people were hospitalized, which often happens when heart failure worsens, says the study published in the March 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Toprol XL belongs to a group of medications known as beta-blockers, which have been used for years to treat high blood pressure and angina. Formerly, physicians avoided using beta-blockers for patients with heart failure, believing that the drugs would worsen symptoms because of their tendency to decrease heart function. In the last several years, though, such drugs have been used increasingly for people with heart failure, and more and more studies have shown benefits for these patients.
"A beta-blocker is a drug that blocks the effects of adrenaline and adrenaline-like substances," says Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, MD, who reviewed the study for WebMD. Adrenaline and other hormones are useful in the short run to protect the heart when it malfunctions, such as during a heart attack, he explains. But in a patient with heart failure, the adrenaline system remains active and can gradually damage the heart.
The study looked at heart failure patients on traditional drug therapy, with the addition of either Toprol XL or a placebo. It showed that death and hospitalization from all causes, including heart attack and worsening heart failure, were reduced by 19% with the Toprol XL, writes author Ake Hjalmarson, MD, PhD. Hjalmarson is with the department of cardiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.
The therapy also showed a beneficial effect on patients' overall well-being, the study's authors write.
"So a beta-blacker blocks the adrenaline and gives it a little protective coat that blocks the adrenaline from having deleterious effects," says Sackner-Bernstein, associate chief of the division of cardiology and director of the Heart Failure Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York.
Blood Pressure Drug Saves Lives for Heart Failure Patients
March 7, 2000 (Lake Worth, Fla.) -- A new study shows that a blood-pressure medication that physicians have traditionally been reluctant to use in people with heart failure can significantly improve their chances of survival and their quality of life.
The drug, Toprol XL (metoprolol), also shortened the amount of time these people were hospitalized, which often happens when heart failure worsens, says the study published in the March 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Toprol XL belongs to a group of medications known as beta-blockers, which have been used for years to treat high blood pressure and angina. Formerly, physicians avoided using beta-blockers for patients with heart failure, believing that the drugs would worsen symptoms because of their tendency to decrease heart function. In the last several years, though, such drugs have been used increasingly for people with heart failure, and more and more studies have shown benefits for these patients.
"A beta-blocker is a drug that blocks the effects of adrenaline and adrenaline-like substances," says Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, MD, who reviewed the study for WebMD. Adrenaline and other hormones are useful in the short run to protect the heart when it malfunctions, such as during a heart attack, he explains. But in a patient with heart failure, the adrenaline system remains active and can gradually damage the heart.
The study looked at heart failure patients on traditional drug therapy, with the addition of either Toprol XL or a placebo. It showed that death and hospitalization from all causes, including heart attack and worsening heart failure, were reduced by 19% with the Toprol XL, writes author Ake Hjalmarson, MD, PhD. Hjalmarson is with the department of cardiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden.
The therapy also showed a beneficial effect on patients' overall well-being, the study's authors write.
"So a beta-blacker blocks the adrenaline and gives it a little protective coat that blocks the adrenaline from having deleterious effects," says Sackner-Bernstein, associate chief of the division of cardiology and director of the Heart Failure Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York.
Source...