Key result
Beta-blockers are linked to ~52% lower mortality in patients with cardiac amyloidosis.
Why the study?
The efficacy of beta-blockers in cardiac amyloidosis is unclear, and concerns persist that neurohormonal blockade could worsen heart failure symptoms.
Does beta-blocker therapy reduce all-cause mortality in patients with cardiac amyloidosis?
Does beta-blocker therapy reduce all-cause mortality in patients with cardiac amyloidosis?
Beta-blocker therapy may be associated with a survival benefit in patients with cardiac amyloidosis, challenging the routine discontinuation of these agents, though findings are limited by observational biases.
May support beta-blocker continuation in cardiac amyloidosis; leaves open confirmation by randomized trials.
Aims The efficacy of beta‐blockers in cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is unclear, and concerns persist that neurohormonal blockade could worsen symptoms of heart failure. We aimed to assess whether beta‐blocker therapy is associated with improved survival in patients with CA. Methods and results We conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis to examine the impact of beta‐blocker therapy on mortality in patients with CA. A search of MEDLINE and EMBASE was performed in August 2023. Data were extracted from observational studies and synthesized with pooling and random effects meta‐analysis. Thirteen studies including 4215 patients with CA were incorporated in this review (3688 transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR‐CM), 502 light chain amyloid cardiomyopathy (AL‐CM), 25 not specified; age 74.8 ± 5.5 years, 76% male). Over half of the cohort (52%) received beta‐blockers and the rate of beta‐blocker withdrawal was 28%. All‐cause mortality was 33% (range: 13–51%) after a median follow‐up ranging from 13 to 36 months. There was an inverse association between the pooled risk of mortality and the use of beta‐blocker therapy at any time point (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.29–0.80, I 2 = 83%, P = 0.005, seven studies). There was no association between mortality and beta‐blocker use (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.29–1.47, I 2 = 88%, P = 0.30) in the three studies that only included patients with ATTR‐CM. The three studies that included patients with both ATTR‐CM and AL demonstrated an association of beta‐blocker use with reduced mortality (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.29–0.63, I 2 = 4%, P < 0.001). The only study that solely included 53 patients with AL‐CM, demonstrated improved survival among the 53% who were able to tolerate beta‐blocker therapy (RR 0.26, 95% CI 0.08–0.79, P = 0.02). The absence of information on staging of CA is an important limitation of this study. Conclusions Treatment with beta‐blockers may be associated with a survival benefit in patients with CA, but these findings are subject to selection and survivor biases. Definitive prospective randomized trials of conventional heart failure therapies are needed in CA.
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Kwok et al. (2024) studied this question. Beta-blocker therapy was associated with reduced mortality in patients with cardiac amyloidosis, showing a RR of 0.48 (95% CI 0.29–0.80).
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