“…Carvedilol (Packer et al, 1996), bisoprolol (CIBIS II, 1999) and metoprolol (MERIT-HF Study Group, 1999) were shown to reduce mortality in patients with chronic heart failure. In contrast, xamoterol had adverse e ects on survival in patients with heart failure (Nicholas et al, 1990), and bucindolol failed to produce a bene®cial e ect compared to placebo (BEST, 1995;Bristow, 2000). Thus, di erences among b-adrenoceptor antagonists are likely to occur.…”