Northwestern Starts New Heart Attack Study

The U.S. government is funding a $15 million study of heart attack victims who are not eligible for certain drugs because of low heart rates.

Approximately 100,000 heart attack patients annually cannot be given life-saving beta-blocker drug therapy because of low heart rates. Physicians said beta-blockers improve heart attack survival rates up to 30 percent by helping regulate heartbeat.

The U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute awarded Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine $15 million to investigate whether implanting a pacemaker in such patients will enable them to take beta-blockers, thereby improving their survival rates.

Dr. Jeffrey Goldberger, a professor of medicine and director of cardiac electrophysiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, will lead the five-year, multicenter, randomized clinical research study that will involve 1,124 participants across the nation.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital will enroll 20 to 30 people, with others being enrolled at centers located in 27 states including Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri.

The study will also help us determine more precisely how frequently low heart rates are a problem in heart attack patients, said Goldberger.