Low dose beta-blockers as effective as high dose after a heart attack

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/nu-ldb091715.php

Public Release: 21-Sep-2015
Low dose beta-blockers as effective as high dose after a heart attack
Surprisingly, heart attack patients live as long -- or even longer -- on one-fourth the suggested dose
Northwestern University

In a surprising new finding, heart attack patients treated with a substantially lower dosage of beta-blockers than used in earlier clinical trials showing their effectiveness survived at the same rate, or even better, than patients on the higher doses used in those trials.

In fact, patients who received one-fourth of the original clinical trial dose had up to a 20 to 25 percent decrease in mortality compared to the full dose group.

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New research should be conducted to determine the most appropriate beta-blocker dose for individual patients to get the optimal benefit, said Goldberger, also the director of the program in cardiac arrhythmias at the Center for Cardiovascular Innovation at Feinberg. The earlier clinical trials did not assess the effects of different doses.

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