Common heart attack drug may raise death risk in some women: Study

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Beta blockers, the standard treatment after a heart attack for the last 40 years, may offer no benefit for heart attack patients and can raise death risk in some women, according to a study on Saturday that called for a rejig into the standard treatment paradigm.

Beta blockers are drugs commonly prescribed for a range of cardiac conditions, including heart attacks. It provides no clinical benefit for patients who have had an uncomplicated myocardial infarction with preserved heart function.

The study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine and in the European Heart Journal, showed that women treated with beta blockers had a higher risk of death, heart attack, or hospitalisation for heart failure compared to women not receiving the drug.

However, men did not have this increased risk.

“The study will reshape all international clinical guidelines,” said senior investigator Valentin Fuster, President of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital.

“Currently, more than 80 per cent of patients with uncomplicated myocardial infarction are discharged on beta blockers. The findings represent one of the most significant advances in heart attack treatment in decades,” said principal investigator Borja Ibáñez, Scientific Director at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Spain.

Although generally considered safe, beta blockers can cause side effects such as fatigue, bradycardia (low heart rate), and sexual dysfunction.

The international study enrolled 8,505 patients across 109 hospitals in Spain and Italy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive or not receive beta blockers after hospital discharge. All patients otherwise received the current standard of care and were followed for a median of nearly four years.

The results showed no significant differences between the two groups in rates of death, recurrent heart attack, or hospitalisation for heart failure.

A subgroup analysis found that women treated with beta blockers experienced more adverse events. Results show women treated with beta-blockers had a 2.7 per cent higher absolute risk of mortality compared to those not treated with beta-blockers during the 3.7 years of follow-up of the study.

--IANS

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