The Impact of Beta Blockers on Survival in Heart Transplant Recipients: Insights from the Zabrze HTx Registry

Abstract EN

Introduction.

The data assessing the impact of beta blocker (BB) medication on survival in patients after heart transplantation (HTx) are scarce and unequivocal; therefore, we investigated this population.

Methods.

We retrospectively analyzed the HTx Zabrze Registry of 380 consecutive patients who survived the 30-day postoperative period.

Results.

The percentage of patients from the entire cohort taking BBs was as follows: atenolol 24 (17%), bisoprolol 67 (49%), carvedilol 11 (8%), metoprolol 28 (20%), and nebivolol 8 (6%).

The patients receiving BBs were older (56.94 ± 14.68 years vs.

52.70 ± 15.35 years, p=0.008) and experienced an onset of HTx earlier in years (11.65 ± 7.04 vs.

7.24 ± 5.78 p≤0.001).

They also had higher hematocrit (0.40 ± 0.05 vs.

0.39 ± 0.05, p=0.022) and red blood cells (4.63 (106/μl) ± 0.71 vs.

4.45 (106/μl) ± 0.68, p=0.015).

Survival according to BB medication did not differ among the groups (p=0.655) (log-rank test).

Univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that the following parameters were associated with unfavorable diagnosis: serum concentration of albumin (g/l) HR: 0.87, 95% CI (0.81–0.94), p=0.0004; fibrinogen (mg/dl) HR: 1.006, 95% CI (1.002–1.008), p=0.0017; and C-reactive protein (mg/l) HR: 1.014, 95% CI (1.004–1.023), p=0.0044.

Conclusions.

The use of BBs in our cohort of patients after HTx was not associated with survival benefits.