Nearly six million Americans have heart failure, a leading driver of healthcare costs in the U.S. A new study published in JAMA Network Open and authored by Clinical Instructor in Medicine Daniel Silverman, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine Timothy Plante, M.D., M.H.S., and colleagues, found beta-blocker use to be a risk factor for hospitalizations for heart failure among patients with a common “stiff heart” heart failure sub-type.
“A big problem with ‘stiff heart’ heart failure is that we don’t have effective medical therapies,” says Dr. Plante. “So, instead, we use the same medications that work for ‘weak heart’ heart failure. Because beta-blockers save lives in ‘weak heart’ heart failure, we assume they are also effective in ‘stiff heart’ heart failure patients—this assumption may be wrong.”
Lead author Dr. Silverman, Dr. Plante, and colleagues analyzed data from the National Institutes of Health-funded TOPCAT (Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure with an Aldosterone Antagonist) study, a trial of the medication spironolactone in patients with “stiff heart” heart failure.
Read more about Dr. Plante and Dr. Silverman’s beta-blocker study.
Pictured above: Daniel Silverman, M.D., left, and Timothy Plante, M.D., M.H.S.