Anonymous4 days ago
A wave of large randomized trials—REDUCE-AMI, ABYSS, REBOOT-CNIC, and BETAMI-DANBLOCK—enrolling over 22,000 patients collectively, is challenging the decades-old practice of prescribing beta-blockers indefinitely after a heart attack. The evidence increasingly suggests that patients with preserved heart function (ejection fraction above 50%) gain no mortality or cardiovascular benefit from lifelong beta-blocker therapy, while a subgroup with mildly reduced function (40–49%) may still benefit. Cardiology guidelines are beginning to shift, but the transition affects millions of patients worldwide and raises questions about clinical inertia, liability, and how to safely deprescribe a drug class that has been standard care for over 40 years.