Efficacy, safety and tolerability of β-adrenergic blockade with metoprolol CR/XL in elderly patients with heart failure

Aim To study the efficacy and tolerability of beta-blockade in elderly patients with heart failure in the MERIT-HF study. Methods and results Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Risk reduction was defined as (I -HR). In patients greater than or equal to 65 years total mortality was reduced by 37% (95% CI 17% to 52%; p = 0.0008), sudden death by 43% (95% CI 17% to 61%; p = 0.0032), and death from worsening heart failure by 61% (95% CI 32% to 77%; p = 0.0005). Hospitatisations for worsening heart failure was reduced by 36% (p = 0.0006). Elderly patients with severe heart failure (NYHA class III/IV with ejection fraction <0.25; n = 425), and patients above 75 years (n = 490) showed similar risk reductions. Metoprolol CR/XL was safe and well tolerated both during initiating therapy and during tong-term follow-up. Conclusions Metoprolol CR/XL was easily instituted, safe and well tolerated in elderly patients with systolic heart failure. The data suggest that these are the patients in whom treatment will have the greatest impact as shown by number of Lives saved and number of hospitatisations avoided. The time has come to overcome the barriers that physicians perceive to beta-blocker treatment, and to provide it to the large number of elderly patients with heart failure in need of this therapy. (C) 2004 The European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Alt rights reserved.