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Another study confirmed that adding a drug called a beta-blocker to conventional therapy for heart attack may provide long-term benefits for some patients.
Beta-blockers are often prescribed to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.
Beta-blockers have been shown to be particularly useful in heart failure patients with a heart condition called left-ventricular systolic dysfunction when used along with drugs called angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Left-ventricular systolic dysfunction reduces the heart's pumping efficiency.
Previous research has shown that the drugs may also help heart attack patients. But these studies were conducted before the widespread use of several new treatments for heart disease, including the artery-clearing procedure balloon angioplasty, clot-busting medications and ACE inhibitors. And until now, beta-blockers had not been studied in heart attack patients with left-ventricular systolic dysfunction.
Or course, Glaxo SmithKline and Roche Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of beta-blockers, were both involved in the research.
The Lancet May 5, 2001;357:1385-1390
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