β-Blockers for hypertension
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* Andrea Siebenhofer
* Karl Horvath
* Klaus Jeitler
* Thomas Gratzer

*   © 2007 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Nadia Khan and Finlay McAlister1 defined the primary outcome for their meta-analysis as the composite cardiovascular outcome of death, nonfatal myocardial infaraction or nonfatal stroke. Unfortunately, this definition is unclear; as a result, for some studies only cardiovascular deaths and for other studies all-cause deaths were included in the analyses. We checked the values presented for all trials in Figs. 2A and 2B against the original publications and found several discrepancies (see Appendix 1 available at [www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/176/7/971-a/DC1](http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/176/7/971-a/DC1)). We recommend recalculating the results and rethinking the interpretation.

## REFERENCE

1.  1. Khan N, McAlister FA. Re-examining the efficacy of β-blockers for the treatment of hypertension: a meta-analysis. CMAJ 2006;174(12):1737-42.
    
    [Abstract/FREE Full Text](http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6NDoiY21haiI7czo1OiJyZXNpZCI7czoxMToiMTc0LzEyLzE3MzciO3M6NDoiYXRvbSI7czoyMjoiL2NtYWovMTc2LzcvOTcxLjIuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9)