Key result
Historical review details the paradigm shift establishing beta-blockers as first-line treatment for HF.
Why the study?
This review retraces the historical paradigm shift from beta-blockers being considered contraindicated in decompensated heart failure to becoming first-line therapy, initiated by Finn Waagstein in the 1970s.
This historical review highlights Finn Waagstein's pioneering role in establishing beta-blockers as a foundational therapy for heart failure.
Beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, formerly called 'β-blockers' (which name will be used throughout this historical review), were initially used for their antihypertensive, anti-ischemic, and antiarrhythmic effects. In the early 1970s, the Swedish cardiologist Finn Waagstein opposed the paradigm that β-blockers were contraindicated in patients with decompensated heart failure. This review retraces the exciting paths of Waagstein's personal fight for recognition of his successful therapy of cardiac decompensation in patients with acute myocardial infarction and also of heart failure. In the second part, we summarise the clinical trials that led to the slow acceptance by the scientific community of the paradigm shift from contraindication to first-line treatment with β-blockers in heart failure.
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Lorenz et al. (2025) conducted a review in Heart failure. Beta-blockers was evaluated. This historical review outlines the paradigm shift led by Finn Waagstein, detailing the clinical trials that established beta-blockers as a first-line treatment for heart failure.
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