New research from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom challenges the established practice that all heart attack patients should be administered beta blockers to decrease heart activity and lower blood pressure.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, examined patients who had a heart attack but did not suffer from heart failure. Results showed that heart attack patients free of heart failure did not live any longer on beta blockers, suggesting it’s not as beneficial as physicians might think.
Historically, about 95 percent of heart attack patients end up on the medication. However, this study explores whether the drugs are being over prescribed, which can lead to costly consequences for patients.
The researchers examined data from the U.K.’s national heart attack register, which collects information on people hospitalized after a heart attack. The data set included more than 179,000 patients who had a heart attack but had not been diagnosed with heart failure.
Study results showed no statistical difference between those who were taking beta blockers and those who were not when comparing death rates within a year of the patients' suffering a heart attack.
"If you look at the patients who had a heart attack but not heart failure—there was no difference in survival rates between those who had been prescribed beta blockers and those that had not,” said Marlous Hall, MD, the lead author on the study and a senior epidemiologist at the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, in a statement.
Looking ahead, the researchers hope to launch a randomized controlled trial that investigates exactly how beta blockers affect mortality rates.
"This was an observational study based on robust statistical analysis of large scale patient data,” Hall said. “What we need now is a randomized patient trial. We were investigating one outcome—did beta blockers increase a patient's chances of survival? A trial would allow researchers to substantiate these findings and also look at other outcomes, such as whether beta blockers prevent future heart attacks. This work would have implications for personalizing medications after a heart attack."
Senior Writer
As a Senior Writer for TriMed Media Group, Katherine primarily focuses on producing news stories, Q&As and features for Cardiovascular Business. She reports on several facets of the cardiology industry, including emerging technology, new clinical trials and findings, and quality initiatives among providers. She is based out of TriMed's Chicago office and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in Modern Healthcare, Crain's Chicago Business and The Detroit News. She joined TriMed in 2016.