Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may have fewer respiratory flare-ups and longer survival if they take beta-blocker medications, according to a new report.
The report followed a study in which doctors in the Netherlands examined data from electronic medical records of 2,230 patients with COPD who visited 23 general medical practices between 1996 and 2006. Of these, 560 had COPD at the start of the study and 1,670 developed it during the study period; 665 used beta-blockers and 1,565 did not.
During an average of 7.2 years of follow-up, 30.8 per cent of patients died, including 27.2 per cent of those who used a beta-blocker compared with 32.3 per cent of those who did not use a beta-blocker. In addition, 47.3 per cent of patients had at least one exacerbation of COPD, including 42.7 per cent of those who had used a beta blocker and 49.3 per cent of those who did not use a beta-blocker. Among the subgroup of 1,229 patients without overt cardiovascular disease, 42.3 per cent experienced at least one exacerbation of COPD and 19.6 per cent died. These outcomes were both less likely among the 19.4 per cent of patients who used beta-blockers.
“To our knowledge, this is the first observational study that shows that long-term treatment with beta-blockers may improve survival and reduce the risk of an exacerbation of COPD in the broad spectrum of patients with a diagnosis of COPD, including those who have COPD with but, importantly, also without overt cardiovascular comorbidities,” the study’s authors wrote.
“Whether beta-blockers can also cause beneficial pulmonary activity and therefore are truly ‘cardiopulmonary’ drugs remains to be proved,” the authors added.
Archives of Internal Medicine 2010;170:880-887
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