Roche

Abstract

M Packer

Milton Packer is Head of the Center for Heart Failure Research and Director of Heart Failure Center at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, USA. He has been involved in a number of large-scale trials of ß blockade in heart failure, and has published widely in the area of heart failure management and therapeutics.

26

Antiadrenergic therapy in severe chronic heart failure –
The COPERNICUS trial

M Packer (New York, NY, USA)

Following the uncertainty concerning the role of antiadrenergic therapy in the management of patients with severe heart failure, Professor Packer will focus on the Carvedilol Prospective Randomised Cumulative Survival Trial (COPERNICUS), ^1,2 which was terminated prematurely following demonstration of a highly significant mortality benefit in patients treated with carvedilol.

The objectives, design and conduct of the trial will be discussed in detail, followed by presentation of the results from COPERNICUS, which have not been revealed before ESC 2000. In summarising the implications of the COPERNICUS study for the future treatment of heart failure patients, Professor Packer will discuss how data from this study, in conjunction with the results of the US Carvedilol Programme ³ and other carvedilol studies, demonstrate the beneficial effects of carvedilol across the whole spectrum of mild, moderate and severe heart failure.

References

Packer M et al for the COPERNICUS Investigators: COPERNICUS (Carvedilol Prospective Randomized Cumulative Survival Trial). A multicenter randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study to determine the effect of carvedilol on mortality and morbidity in severe congestive heart failure. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 1999;13:24.
McGowan J, Murphy R, Cleland JGF. Carvedilol for heart failure: clinical trials in progress. Heart Failure Rev 1999;4:89–95.
Packer M et al. The effect of carvedilol on morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure. N Engl J Med 1996; 334: 1349–55.

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