Beta Blockers No Benefit After Heart Attack; Women Risk
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- REBOOT Trial enrolled 8,505 patients from 109 Spanish and Italian hospitals, randomly assigning them to beta‑blocker therapy or no beta‑blocker after an uncomplicated heart attack, with a median follow‑up of nearly four years.
- Beta blockers showed no statistically significant reduction in all‑cause mortality, recurrent myocardial infarction, or heart‑failure hospitalization among patients whose left‑ventricular function remained normal.
- Women on beta‑blocker therapy experienced a higher incidence of death, repeat heart attack, or heart‑failure admission than women who did not receive the drug.
- Valentin Fuster presented the trial’s findings at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid, and the data were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
- International clinical guidelines are expected to be revised, as the trial challenges a four‑decade‑old standard of post‑myocardial infarction care.
Why it matters: Patients and health systems stand to save on unnecessary medication for the 8,505 trial participants and millions worldwide, while clinicians must adjust prescriptions to avoid heightened risk for women.
