Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blockers in the treatment of symptomatic heart failure

Abstract

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blockers are the main therapies used in the treatment of symptomatic systolic heart failure. In practice, those two groups are usually used simultaneously because of their complementary mechanism and effect. Current guidelines limit the list of recommended drugs to those, that were successfully tested in large randomised trials. In addition, they provide optimal dosage that was used in these studies. This article presents a summary of the current recommendations in this topic.