One size does not fit all: the role of vasodilating beta-blockers in controlling hypertension as a means of reducing cardiovascular and stroke risk.

Beta-blockers have played a key role in the management of hypertension-related cardiovascular disease for decades, and continue to be recommended as a mainstay of therapy in national guidelines statements. Recent data have shown less optimal reductions in total mortality, CVD mortality, and CVD events with beta-blockers compared with renin-angiotensin system-blocking agents or calcium channel blockers. The beta-blocker class, however, spans a wide range of agents, and the growing concern about the risk-benefit profile of beta-blockers should not be generalized to later-generation vasodilating beta-blockers such as carvedilol and nebivolol. A growing database from hypertension studies confirms the clinical efficacy and safety of vasodilating beta-blockers, and outcome studies indicate that these agents can play an important role in global CVD reduction in patients with hypertensive or ischemic heart failure.