Prognosis in patients with acute chest pain in relation to chronic beta-blocker treatment prior to admission to hospital.

We evaluated the prognosis among consecutive patients hospitalized for acute chest pain or other symptoms suggestive of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in relation to whether they were on chronic treatment with beta-blockers at onset of symptoms or not. In all, 3,504 patients were included in the analyses, of whom 936 (27%) were on chronic beta-blockade. Of the patients on beta-blockade, 25% developed AMI as compared with 21% of the remaining patients (p > 0.2). The mortality during the first 28 days was 7% in patients on chronic beta-blockade as compared with 5% in those not on beta-blockade (p > 0.2). When correcting for differences at baseline, chronic treatment with beta-blockers did not significantly influence the outcome.