Beta-blockers should not be withheld from systolic heart failure patients with type-2 diabetes, argue the authors of new Australian research showing they have no negative effects on glycaemic control.
Neither the nonselective beta blocker carvedilol nor the beta-1 selective beta-blocker bisoprolol were found to worsen glycaemic control, albuminuria status, or lipid profile in a cohort of 125 patients treated for more than a year.
In the 80 patients prescribed carvedilol, HbA1c levels in fact fell. Levels were largely unchanged in the 45 prescribed bisoprolol, the study found.
While the prognostic benefits of beta-blockers in systolic heart failure patients are recognised, the medication is often underprescribed in patients who also have diabetes, the authors wrote in Cardiovascular Diabetology.
“Traditional teaching for type-2 diabetes has been...
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