I’ve heard there are new kinds of beta blockers available. Are they helpful in CHF?
One new medication recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), carvedilol, was found to be of significant value to patients with mild to moderate CHF when used in conjunction with diuret-ics, ACE inhibitors, and digitalis.
Clinical trials of this medication indicate that hospitalization time for CHF, as well as morbidity and mortality from the disease, was considerably reduced. Whether or not these results will apply to other beta blockers remains unclear and is an important issue, because newer agents such as carvedilol will be much more expensive than older ones such as metoprolol.