Several large trials have shown that beta-blocker treatment reduces the risk of death and hospital admission in patients with symptomatic heart failure. Unfortunately, survey data suggests relatively poor utilisation of beta-blockers, despite ample evidence for good tolerability. Additionally there are several important unanswered questions, such as clinical efficacy for specific sub-populations (women, the elderly and patients with diabetes or other co-morbidities) and the effect of beta-blockers in combination with other medications. Previous meta-analyses, based on published tabular data, have been conducted although this approach has important biases and limitations.

We plan to perform a carefully conducted systematic review of individual patient data from the major randomised trials of beta-blockers in heart failure. The goals of this collaborative project are to clarify the overall efficacy of beta-blockers and identify sub-groups that show particular benefit, thereby increasing the use of beta-blockers, reducing adverse clinical outcomes and the high costs associated with this condition.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Randomised control trials of beta-blocker versus control in patients with documented heart failure
• Unconfounded trials only (in which one treatment group differed from another only by the beta-blocker therapy of interest)
• Randomization process precluded prior knowledge of the next treatment (for example trials in which treatment allocation was alternate or based on odd or even dates would not be included)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Trial sample size of less than 300 patients

Meta-Analysis of randomised controlled trials investigating mortality & morbidity of placebo versus beta-blockers in heart failure