Abstract
Ischemic heart disease is the main cause of death in the western world (8, 13, 22). Most of these deaths are sudden and occur before the patient reaches hospital (8, 11, 24). It is generally accepted that sudden death is due to ventricular fibrillation in most cases, but the pathogenesis and factors predisposing to ventricular fibrillation are not well defined (6, 26). In order to prevent deaths outside hospital one has to institute prophylactic medication in patients at high risk for cardiovascular death. During the last few years, long-term treatment with beta-blocking agents has been suggested as a potentially useful therapy to reduce morbidity and mortality in ischemic heart disease. The aim of this paper is to review the studies of chronic beta-blockade in the prevention of cardiovascular death.
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© 1980 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague
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Hjalmarson, Å. (1980). Prevention of Sudden Death: The Role of Beta-Blockers. In: Kulbertus, H.E., Wellens, H.J.J. (eds) Sudden Death. Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8834-7_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8834-7_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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