Congestive heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle cannot pump blood normally, leading to such symptoms as shortness of breath and fluid accumulation.
Heart failure is a common and serious illness in the United States, particularly in older adults.
Although many medicines improve symptoms and survival in heart failure, patients with this condition often do not do well, and better treatments are needed. Some studies have suggested that -blockers may help patients with heart failure, but the likelihood that they are helpful is unclear. To find out whether -blockers decrease hospitalization and improve survival in adults with heart failure. The researchers studied 10,136 patients with heart failure who had participated in previous studies of the use of -blockers in heart failure. Rather than doing a new study, the researchers analyzed information from 22 previous studies that had assigned patients with heart failure to receive -blockers or placebo.