The Role of the New β-Blockers in Treating Cardiovascular Disease

The β-adrenergic receptor blockers play an important role in the management of cardiovascular disease, including hypertension and chronic heart failure. However, concerns regarding safety and tolerability with currently available agents can limit their use. The β-blockers vary with regard to several pharmacologic properties, including β1/β2 selectivity, intrinsic sympathomimetic activity, and, with the newest β-blockers, vasodilation. These pharmacologic differences may result in clinically important differences in tolerability and hemodynamic properties. Nebivolol is a novel β-blocker with both a greater degree of selectivity for β1-adrenergic receptors than other agents in this class and an ability to stimulate endothelial nitric oxide production, leading to vasodilation and other potential clinical effects. Published randomized, controlled, multicenter studies with nebivolol have shown that once-daily treatment significantly reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension, compared with placebo, in a dose-dependent manner, and is well tolerated, with an adverse event profile similar to that of placebo. When compared with other β-blockers as well as with other antihypertensive classes of agents in head-to-head trials, nebivolol demonstrated similar antihypertensive efficacy and a lower incidence of adverse events. Nebivolol has also been shown to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality in a large population of elderly patients with chronic heart failure, independent of left ventricular ejection fraction. Nebivolol is currently available in Europe for the management of hypertension and is expected to be available soon in the United States.