Common heart attack drug doesn’t work and may raise risk of death for some women, new studies say

According to groundbreaking new research, a drug-blockers called beta-blockers does not benefit the majority of patients used as primary treatment after a primary crisis and may contribute to the risk of hospitalization and death in some women.

“These findings should reshape all international clinical guidelines about the use of beta blockers in men and women and create a gender -specific approach that has been needed for a long time for cardiovascular treatment.” Senior Laborist Valentin Fuster is the head of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York and General Manager of National Cardiovascular Research Center in Madrid.

After heart attacks treated with beta-blockers, women with low heart damage were significantly higher compared to women who were almost three times more and more likely to be hospitalized for having another heart attack or heart failure. European Heart Magazine And it was also planned to be presented at the European Cardiology Association in Madrid on Saturday.

Madrid’s National Cardiovascular Investigation Center Science Director. Borja Ibáñez said, “This is especially true for women who buy high doses of beta blockers,” Borja said.

Ibáñez, a cardiologist from the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital of Madrid, said, the total number of women in clinical research was the biggest thing involved in a study that tested beta blockers after myocardial infarction (heart attack), so this is an important finding. ”.

However, the findings were applied to women with more than 50 left ventricular ejection fraction.%, The study said it was accepted as a normal function. Ejection fraction is a way to measure how much the left side of the heart pumps oxygenated blood in the body. For anyone who has a score of 40% after a heart attack, beta blockers continue to be a maintenance standard due to their ability to calm heart arrhythmias that can trigger a second event.

The Director of Cardiovascular Prevention and Healthy Living in National Jewish Health in Denver. Andrew Freeman, nevertheless, said the drug may have unpleasant side effects.

Fremen, who is not involved in the research, said, “Drugs can lead to low blood pressure, low heart rate, erectile dysfunction, fatigue and mood changes,” Freeman said. “Every time we use these drugs, we should always balance the risk against benefit.”

Why can women be more sensitive to the damages from beta-blockers than men?

“This isn’t actually surprising, Free Freeman said. “Gender has a lot of interest in how people react to the drug. In most cases, women have smaller hearts. They are more sensitive to blood pressure drugs. Some of them may be about size and some may be related to other factors that we do not fully understand yet.”

Actually, because early research on the heart focused on menDiscovering that heart disease has taken years of medical science Different in women. Men typically have plaque accumulation in large arteries and experience more traditional signs of heart attack, such as chest pain. Women are more likely to have plaque in the smaller blood vessels of the heart, and they may have more extraordinary symptoms for heart attack, such as back pain, indigestion and shortness of breath.

Developments in treatment reduce the need for beta-blockers

The analysis on women was a part of a much larger clinical research called restarting-after myocardial infarction, treatment with beta-blockers, 8,505 men and women treated for a heart attack for 109 hospitals in Spain and Italy for four years without reduced ejection fraction.

The results of the study were published there New England Magazine Medicine and also presented at the European Cardiology Congress.

None of the patients in the trial did not have a left ventricular ejection fraction below 40%, a sign of potential heart failure.

Fuster Former editor of the American Cardiology College Journal and the former president of the American Heart Association and the World Health Federation, Fuster said, although this has been a maintenance standard for nearly 40 years, we have not found any benefit in using a beta-blocker for men or women who have preserved heart attack after a heart attack. ”

Probably this Developments in drug treatment After the patients came to the hospital, such as the immediate use of stents and blood thinners. In fact, he said that most of men and women who have a heart attack today have over 50%ejection factions.

“Nevertheless, approximately 80% of patients in the United States, Europe and Asia are treated with beta-blockers because medical guides still recommend them,” he said. “When testing new drugs often, it is much less common to constantly question the need for old treatments.”

Although the study could not find the need to use a beta blocker for people with left ventricular ejection factions after a heart attack, a separate meta-analysis of 1,885 patients Published on Saturday Lancet found benefits for those with 40% to 50% points, where the heart can be slightly damaged.

“This sub -group took advantage of the routine use of beta blockers,” he said. “We found a decrease of approximately 25% at the primary end point, a new heart attack, heart failure and all cause death.”

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