The large‐scale placebo‐controlled beta‐blocker studies in systolic heart failure revisited: results from CIBIS‐II, COPERNICUS and SENIORS‐SHF compared with stratified subsets from MERIT‐HF

Aims The four pivotal beta‐blocker trials in heart failure (HF) had different inclusion criteria, making comparison difficult without patient stratifying. The aim of this study was to compare, in similar patients, the effects of bisoprolol, metoprolol controlled release/extended release (CR/XL), carvedilol and nebivolol on (i) total mortality, (ii) all‐cause mortality or hospitalization due to cardiovascular causes (time to first event), (iii) all‐cause mortality or hospitalization because of HF and (iv) tolerability, defined as discontinuation of randomized treatment. Methods We compared stratified (s) subsets in MERIT‐HF with patients in CIBIS‐II [New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III/IV and ejection fraction (EF) ≤35%] and COPERNICUS (NYHA III/IV and EF