Table 1.

Important β-blocker clinical trials in HF patients

Trial name	Treatments	Population	N	Primary outcomes	Findings	P-value for PO	References
COPERNICUS	Carvedilol versus placebo	Severe HF	2,289	Death	Carvedilol ↓risk of PO by 35%, and ↓risk of death or hospitalization by 24%	0.0014	[2]
CIBIS-II	Bisoprolol versus Placebo	NYHA III–IV	2,647	All-cause mortality	Bisoprolol ↓risk of PO by 34%	<0.0001	[3]
MERIT-HF	Metoprolol CR/XL versus Placebo	NYHA II–IV	3,991	Composite of death and hospitalization	Metoprolol ↓risk of PO by 19%, and ↓ risk of death or heart transplantation by 32%	<0.001	[5]
COMET	Carvedilol versus Metoprolol CR/XL	NYHA II–IV	3,029	All-cause mortality	Carvedilol ↓risk of PO by 17%	0.0017	[6]
BEST	Bucindolol versus Placebo	NYHA III–IV	2,708	All-cause mortality	Early termination of the trial due to no significant difference between the treatments. However, CV death rate was lower in bucindolol group than placebo (HR, 0.86; 95% CI 0.74–0.99)	ns	[7]

COPERNICUS, The Carvedilol Prospective Randomized Cumulative Survival; CIBIS-II, The Cardiac Insufficiency Bisoprolol Study II; MERIT-HF, The Metoprolol CR/XL Randomized Intervention Trial in Congestive Heart Failure; COMET, Carvedilol or Metoprolol European Trial; BEST, The Beta-blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial; CR/XL, controlled release/extended release; HF, heart failure; NYHA, New York Heart Association functional class; N, sample size; ↓, decreased; PO, primary outcomes; CV, cardiovascular; ns, not significant