Diagnosed With Congestive Heart Failure. Not Responding To Flecainide And Meoprolol. Is Bystolic Proper Medication?

Posted on Thu, 10 May 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 10 May 2012 Answered on

Mon, 9 Jul 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : My boyfriend has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. His flecainide and meoprolol are not working for him so his doctor has prescribed bystolic. Is this medication appropriate for congestive heart failure?

Answered by Dr. Ashwini Kolur (2 hours later)

Hello,

Thanks for your query. I will try my best to provide you with best possible professional recommendations to your questions.

Bystolic is Nebivolol and it belongs to group of beta blockers. Nebivolol is a highly selective beta1-adrenergic blocker and also causes vasodilatation and decreases peripheral vascular resistance. All these improve the blood flow to different organs and benefit patients with chronic congestive heart failure. It is often used as adjuvant to Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (or angiotensin II-receptor antagonists) and/or diuretics, but it should not be used in acute heart failure.

Long-term therapy with nebivolol improves left ventricular function, exercise capacity, cardiovascular hospital admissions in patients with stable heart failure. It is one of the only beta-adrenergic blockers that have been exclusively studied in elderly patients.

I advise you to not to stop nebivolol abruptly, as this can worsen heart failure, or precipitate angina. Care should be taken that it should be taken as prescribed without fail.

Yet again, I do hope that you have found something helpful and I will be glad to answer any further query.

Hope I have cleared your queries. If you do not have any clarifications, you can close the discussion and rate the answer

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad