May 23, 1996New England Journal of Medicine105 citations
View Full Paperβ-Adrenergic Blockers and Survival in Heart Failure
Key Result
This editorial reviews the evolution of medical therapies for prolonging survival in patients with congestive heart failure, noting landmark trials like V-HeFT I, CONSENSUS, and SOLVD.
Structured PICO
Do β-adrenergic blockers improve survival in patients with heart failure?
P
Population
Patients with symptomatic heart failure
I
Intervention
β-Adrenergic Blockers
O
Outcome
Survivalhard clinical
The text provides a historical overview of clinical trials establishing medical therapies that prolong survival in heart failure.
Abstract
Only in the past decade have well-conducted clinical trials advanced the treatment of congestive heart failure from palliation to prolongation of life. In 1986, the Veterans Administration Cooperative Vasodilator–Heart Failure Trial I (V-HeFT I) established the principle that medical therapy (with hydralazine plus nitrates) could prolong survival in patients with symptomatic heart failure.1 On the heels of that study, angiotensin-converting–enzyme (ACE) inhibitors were definitively shown to improve survival in the Cooperative North Scandinavian Enalapril Survival Study (CONSENSUS) and the Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD).2,3 V-HeFT II then compared these therapies directly and showed that the survival benefit was . . .