1. Beta-blocker treatment of chronic systolic heart failure improves prognosis even in patients meeting one or more exclusion criteria of the MERIT-HF study
- Author
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Andreas Jost, Steffen Schneider, Markus Haass, Herbert Lorenz, Christian Zugck, Martina Jacobs, Jochen Senges, Caroline Kilkowski, Bernhard H. Rauch, Kerstin Muth, Ralph Winkler, Matthias Hochadel, Andrew Remppis, and Andreas Kilkowski
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Heart disease ,medicine.drug_class ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Adrenergic beta-Antagonists ,Population ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Registries ,Myocardial infarction ,education ,Beta blocker ,Aged ,Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ,Aged, 80 and over ,Heart Failure ,Heart transplantation ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,Hazard ratio ,Middle Aged ,Prognosis ,medicine.disease ,Survival Analysis ,Blood pressure ,Heart failure ,Chronic Disease ,Cardiology ,Female ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business - Abstract
Aims Improved prognosis of patients with chronic systolic heart failure by treatment with beta-blockers has been shown in several randomized controlled multicentre trials. However, in clinical practice only a part of heart failure patients meet the inclusion criteria of these trials. The present study evaluates whether reduction of mortality by beta-blockers also can be achieved in patients presenting one or more exclusion criteria of the MERIT-HF trial. Methods and results From the Ludwigshafen Heart Failure Registry 675 patients with chronic systolic heart failure consecutively enrolled between January 1995 and June 2004 were divided in two groups either meeting the inclusion criteria of the MERIT-HF trial (‘trial patients’: n =278, 60% treated with beta-blockers) or not (‘non-trial patients’: n =397; 51% treated with beta-blockers). The distribution of the MERIT-HF exclusion criteria in the group of ‘non-trial patients’ was as follows: acute myocardial infarction 9.6%; systolic blood pressure
- Published
- 2005
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