β-Blockers associated with no class-specific survival benefit in acute intracerebral hemorrhage.

Objectives: Despite the high mortality, there is currently no specific treatment for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Research investigating optimum degree of blood pressure control in patients presenting with ICH and hypertension is ongoing. However, there is limited understanding of the potential benefits of specific classes of antihypertensive therapy. β-Adrenergic antagonists may provide neuroprotection from inflammation-induced injury by inhibiting sympathetic nervous system mediated immune activation. We examined mortality in ICH patients receiving β-adrenergic antagonists to determine whether this class of antihypertensive therapy was associated with improved survival.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of a large, prospectively collected database of patients presenting with acute ICH was performed. Patients were grouped by inpatient β-blocker treatment to determine an effect on mortality during the inpatient stay and at 3 months of follow-up. Additional analysis was conducted comparing β-blocker therapy to any other antihypertensive treatment to determine a class-specific association of β-blocker treatment with mortality.

Results: The study population included 426 patients with acute, spontaneous ICH. Inpatient β-blocker use was independently associated with decreased rates of inpatient death and mortality at 3 months of follow-up. However, univariate and multivariable analyses comparing β-blocker use to other antihypertensives failed to show any class-specific reduction in mortality at either time point.

Discussion: Our study demonstrates that the improvement seen in patients treated with β-adrenergic antagonists is not an effect unique to this class. This supports ongoing trials to determine optimum levels of blood pressure control using multiple classes of antihypertensives.