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Cardiac risk factors and prevention
Review
β-Blockers in hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and acute myocardial infarction: a review of the literature
  1. James J DiNicolantonio1,
  2. Hassan Fares2,
  3. Asfandyar K Niazi3,
  4. Saurav Chatterjee4,
  5. Fabrizio D'Ascenzo5,
  6. Enrico Cerrato5,
  7. Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai6,
  8. Carl J Lavie2,7,
  9. David S Bell8 and
  10. James H O'Keefe9
  1. 1Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
  2. 2John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School- The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
  3. 3Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan
  4. 4St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, New York, USA
  5. 5University of Turin, Citta Della Salute e Della Scienza, Torino, Italy
  6. 6Sapienza University of Rome, Latina, Italy
  7. 7Department of Preventive Medicine, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
  8. 8Southside Endocrinology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  9. 9Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke's Hospital, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr James J DiNicolantonio; jjdinicol{at}gmail.com

Abstract

β-Blockers (BBs) are an essential class of cardiovascular medications for reducing morbidity and mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). However, a large body of data indicates that BBs should not be used as first-line therapy for hypertension (HTN). Additionally, new data have questioned the role of BBs in the treatment of stable coronary heart disease (CHD). However, these trials mainly tested the non-vasodilating β1 selective BBs (atenolol and metoprolol) which are still the most commonly prescribed BBs in the USA. Newer generation BBs, such as the vasodilating BBs carvedilol and nebivolol, have been shown not only to be better tolerated than non-vasodilating BBs, but also these agents do not increase the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM), atherogenic dyslipidaemia or weight gain. Moreover, carvedilol has the most evidence for reducing morbidity and mortality in patients with HF and those who have experienced an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This review discusses the cornerstone clinical trials that have tested BBs in the settings of HTN, HF and AMI. Large randomised trials in the settings of HTN, DM and stable CHD are still needed to establish the role of BBs in these diseases, as well as to determine whether vasodilating BBs are exempt from the disadvantages of non-vasodilating BBs.

  • beta-blockers
  • HEART FAILURE
  • carvedilol
  • myocardial infarction

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2014-000230

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