No Benefit of Beta Blockers in Certain Heart Attack Patients: REBOOT Trial Finds
In a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine and European Heart Journal, researchers revealed that beta blockers-long considered a cornerstone of post-heart attack care—offer no clinical benefit for patients who have had an uncomplicated myocardial infarction with preserved heart function.
The results of the REBOOT trial were presented during a “Hot Line” session at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid and are expected to prompt a major shift in clinical guidelines.
Beta blockers have been routinely prescribed for over four decades to reduce the risk of repeat cardiac events following a heart attack. However, with advances in cardiac care, their role in patients with no complications and preserved ejection fraction had remained untested in large-scale trials—until now.
The REBOOT trial, coordinated by Spain’s CNIC and the Mario Negri Institute in Milan, enrolled 8,505 patients across 109 hospitals in Spain and Italy. Participants—all of whom had preserved heart function following a heart attack—were randomly assigned to receive or not receive beta blockers after hospital discharge. All other aspects of care followed current clinical standards. Patients were followed for a median of 3.7 years.
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