Exercise capacity, arrhythmias, humoral and chemical parameters during long-term therapy with xamoterol.

In order to assess potential harmful effects of the partial beta-1 agonist xamoterol during long-term therapy, we randomly assigned 30 patients with coronary arterial disease and heart failure in classes II and III of the classification of the New York Heart Association to 200 mg of xamoterol twice daily or placebo during a treatment period of 3 months. A supine bicycle exercise test was performed at baseline and after three months in order to assess changes of exercise capacity. Blood samples for determination of creatinine, electrolytes, renin and norepinephrine were withdrawn simultaneously. Twenty-four hour ambulatory Holter electrocardiograms were performed before study, at the end of the study and 72 hours after withdrawal of study medication. On xamoterol, exercise capacity increased from 21.9 +/- 9.7 to 27.8 +/- 14.8 kilojoule (P = 0.032) compared to baseline levels. Exercise duration increased from 340 +/- 115 to 400 +/- 144 seconds (P = 0.043). Heart rate decreased by 10% (P = 0.05) at the 50 watt level and by 10% (P = 0.024) on maximum exercise compared to the baseline values. The rate pressure product was unchanged at rest and dropped by 11% (P = 0.038) on maximum exercise. In contrast, on placebo no significant changes occurred. During xamoterol therapy no changes of blood pressure, electrolytes, renal function and the time-intervals of electrocardiogram were observed. Xamoterol did not enhance arrhythmias during 24-hour ambulatory Holter monitoring. No serious side effects were observed. Xamoterol would appear to be a suitable and safe drug in the therapy of mild to moderate heart failure.