STAT April 7, 2024
ATLANTA — Beta blockers are a mainstay in cardiovascular treatment, frequently given to patients after heart attacks. But a new large trial turns that convention on its head, suggesting that the drugs may not in fact help many of these patients.
The trial, which enrolled about 5,000 patients who specifically had preserved ejection fraction after a heart attack, found that long-term treatment with beta blockers did not significantly reduce the combined risk of death or new heart attack, according to results being presented here Sunday at the American College of Cardiology conference and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Ejection fraction, the proportion of blood pushed out of the heart’s left ventricle with each heartbeat, serves as a...
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