Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(10):880-887
Beta-Blockers May Benefit Patients with COPD
Beta-blockers, long withheld from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease over concerns that they would worsen symptoms, actually seem to lessen mortality and exacerbations, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study.
Researchers followed some 2200 patients (average age, 65) in the Netherlands for 7 years; all either had COPD at study entry or developed it over the course of the study. Patients taking beta-blockers were about a third less likely to die during the study and about a quarter less likely to have a COPD exacerbation.
Editorialists call for confirmation in a randomized trial and, pending that, say clinicians have a rationale for using beta-blockers "cautiously" in their patients with COPD and a coexisting heart condition.
