Neither heart rate nor blood pressure worsened under long-term use of long-acting beta2 agonists olodaterol or formoterol in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a post hoc pooled analysis published in Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Patients were randomized to either once-daily olodaterol (5 or 10 mcg), twice-daily formoterol (12 mcg), or placebo. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured before and after dosing at baseline and at four time points during the study: 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 24 weeks, and 48 weeks. One limitation of the study is that it couldn’t include patients with unstable COPD because of safety reasons; this prevents the findings from being more broadly generalizable. “These findings, in a large COPD database, speak against the potential negative cardiovascular effects of olodaterol, as well as those of formoterol,” the researchers concluded

Source: Philippine Star December 07, 2019 15:56 UTC