Beta Blocker News and Research

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Beta-adrenergic receptor blocking agents (beta-blockers) are drugs with multiple actions on the heart. Blockade of beta-1 receptors results in slowing of heart rate, reduction in myocardial contractility, and lowering of systemic blood pressure. In the context of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which represents a state of reduced oxygen supply to the affected portion of the heart, these effects may be beneficial as they result in reduced myocardial workload and oxygen demand. Furthermore, beta-blockers may reduce the risk of ventricular arrhythmias, which are an important cause of death following AMI.

Beta-blockers can reduce cancer spread in patients with breast tumours

The risk of cancer spreading in patients with breast tumours can be lowered with the use of beta-blockers, research presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona suggests.

31 Mar 2010

NICE appraisal committee publishes preliminary recommendation of Multaq for AF

Sanofi-aventis announced today that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England and Wales, has just published a new appraisal consultation document for Multaq(R) (dronedarone) indicating its intention to recommend Multaq(R) use for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation.

30 Mar 2010

StockPreacher.com announces investment report featuring ARCA biopharma

StockPreacher.com announces an investment report featuring ARCA biopharma Inc. The report includes financial, comparative and investment analyses, and industry information you need to know to make an educated investment decision.

29 Mar 2010

Treatment with beta-blockers can help reduce spread of cancer in patients with breast tumours

Treatment with beta-blockers can help reduce the spread of cancer in patients with breast tumours, a researcher will tell the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona today (Friday).

26 Mar 2010

Sir James Black inventor of beta-blockers passes away

Sir James Black passed away on Monday after a long illness, he was 85. Sir James Black is credited as the inventor of the beta-blocker drugs in 1962. These are drugs which play an important role in the treatment of angina and heart attacks. They are regarded as one of the major medical breakthroughs of the 20th Century in Pharmacology. Born in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Sir James Black studied medicine at St. Andrews University.

23 Mar 2010

athenahealth introduces new patient communication service

athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of Internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced the launch of athenaCommunicator, a new patient communication service that is fully integrated with athenahealth’s established web-based physician practice management and electronic health record services.

23 Mar 2010

Beta blockers improve heart function; eliminate need for implantable cardiac devices

New Saint Louis University research has found that beta blockers, a class of drugs used to prevent the progression of heart failure and manage arrhythmias (irregular heart beat) and hypertension (high blood pressure), are underused in heart failure patients who receive implantable cardiac devices.

4 Mar 2010

Low RVEF increases risk of death in patients with systolic heart failure

New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) suggests that the ability of right side of the heart to pump blood may be an indication of the risk of death to heart-failure patients whose condition is caused by low function by the left side of their heart.

17 Feb 2010

Right-ventricular impairment increases risk of death in heart-failure patients

17 Feb 2010

Future studies may provide clarity on the best approach for pre-surgery beta blockers

In a commentary appearing in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, heart specialists at the University of Michigan Health System make a plea for clarity on the best approach for prescribing beta blockers before surgery.

10 Feb 2010

Bioethicists create easy-to-remember checklist to assess patient's decision-making capacity in emergency

Physicians in training and bioethicists at Johns Hopkins have created an easy-to-remember checklist to help medical students and clinicians quickly assess a patient's decision-making capacity in an emergency.

5 Feb 2010

Simple genetic test can help in detecting heart abnormalities

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disease that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally large. It often goes undetected and, as a result, HCM has the dubious distinction of being the leading cause of sudden death in children, young adults and athletes.

2 Feb 2010

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award granted to Robert J. Lefkowitz

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category goes in this second edition to Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz (1943, New York, United States), investigator in the Department of Medicine at Duke University (United States).

29 Jan 2010

Study shows ActiveHealth's VBID programs increase adherence to medications

ActiveHealth Management (ActiveHealth®), a subsidiary of Aetna, today announced the publication of a paper in the February issue of Health Affairs. The paper demonstrates that properly structured value-based insurance design (VBID) programs can be effective at increasing adherence to drug regimens for specific chronic medical conditions without increasing overall costs.

28 Jan 2010

Ablation therapy better than drug therapy for heart rhythm disorder

Treating a common heart rhythm disorder by burning heart tissue with a catheter works dramatically better than drug treatments, according to a landmark study published in the Jan. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

27 Jan 2010

Norepinephrine responses to bucindolol influenced by alpha-2C adrenergic receptor genotype

ARCA biopharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing genetically targeted therapies for heart failure and other cardiovascular disease, today announced that the paper “An alpha-2C-Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphism Alters the Norepinephrine Lowering Effects and Therapeutic Response of the Beta Blocker Bucindolol in Chronic Heart Failure” was published in the January 2010 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Circulation: Heart Failure (http://circheartfailure.ahajournals.org).

22 Jan 2010

New issue from Annals of Internal Medicine

Prescriptions of some opioids, such as oxycodone, have increased significantly over the past decade. As long-term opioid therapy for chronic noncancer pain becomes more common, the deaths associated with opioids increase.

19 Jan 2010

Researchers identify new approach to eliminate side effects of drugs

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken an early step toward identifying a new approach to drug discovery that may eventually yield drugs with fewer side effects.

7 Jan 2010

Beta blockers may increase risk of anemia-induced adverse cardiovascular events

Routinely used to treat patients for heart attack or high blood pressure, beta blockers are known for their role in helping to protect the heart. A new study in the January issue of the journal Anesthesiology looks at the effects of beta blockers on surgical outcomes, revealing that the cardioprotective effects of the medication could be compromised by acute surgical anemia.

23 Dec 2009

ARCA biopharma submits Gencaro trial protocol for review under the FDA’s SPA process

ARCA biopharma, Inc. today announced that it has submitted a study protocol for review under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) process for the design of a clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of GencaroTM, in approximately 3,000 patients with chronic heart failure who have the genotype that appears to respond most favorably to Gencaro. Gencaro is the Company’s investigational, pharmacologically unique beta-blocker and mild vasodilator.

23 Dec 2009