Fueled largely by the results of the blood pressure arm of ASCOT, various authoritative medical organizations are demoting beta-blockers (BBs) from their former role as first line treatment for elevated blood pressure. NICE (the British National institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) and the British Hypertension Society have recently published guidelines that recommend BBs not be used as first line BP treatment except in cases of angina and HBP or in patients with excessive sympathetic tone or if they cannot tolerate ACEs or ARBs. They also recommend that if a patient is already on beta-blockers and a second BP drug is needed that the additional drug not be a diuretic because of the increased risk of diabetes.(Apparently the argument that since an increased mortality was not seen in ALLHAT patients who developed diabetes it is somehow OK if some medications trigger diabetes did not have much credence with the panel)
For those of us enamored by pathophysiology I refer back to a earlier posting that briefly reviewed data suggesting that beta-blockers are not as good as we once thought because-at least in part- of their failure to lower the central blood pressure while the ACEs and ARBs do.
1 comment:
As you note once you develop ischemia you should be on a BB.
Some Grim thoughts:
1. Most HTN will die of a cardiac event.
2. Once a pt gets ischemia they are on a BB for life.
3. Pre op BB have been shown to be protective of perioperateive cardiac events.
It just seems to me not logial that BB do not protect HTN patients.
Indeed it would seem logical that all HTN patients should be on a BB so when they have their MI they will be protected.
Was there problem with the BB used in ASCOT?
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