ArticleCritical care medicine2026
Continuing vs. Withholding Home Beta-Blockers at Admission for Suspected Infection: A Target Trial Emulation.
Article in Critical care medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prehospital blood cultures in suspected sepsis: no need to wait until hospital arrival!Infection · 2026Article
- Intensive Care Management of ANCA-associated Vasculitides: a Narrative Review.Current rheumatology reports · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveBeta-blockers are commonly prescribed for chronic cardiovascular diseases. Despite potential benefits in septic shock, beta-blockers are often held at hospital admission for patients with suspected infection and possible sepsis. We compared the effects of chronic beta-blocker continuation vs. discontinuation on 90-day all-cause mortality among patients admitted from the emergency department with suspected infection.
designRetrospective cohort study using the target trial emulation framework. We used Cox regression to compare 90-day mortality between treatment groups, with inverse probability of treatment weights to account for baseline differences in sex, race, ethnicity, age, body mass index, presence of a "do not resuscitate" order, comorbidities, and acute illness severity.
settingA single large, academic, tertiary care emergency department in the Midwest United States. PATIENTS: Patients 18 years or older on beta-blockers prior to admission hospitalized for suspected infection (defined by orders for blood cultures and broad-spectrum antibiotics). Patients with shock, heart rates less than 40 or greater than 120, or who required an IV beta- or calcium channel blocker at a clinician's discretion were excluded.
interventionsContinuation of oral beta-blockers within 48 hours of admission vs. no continuation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsOf 4635 eligible patients, 1172 (25.3%) received an oral beta-blocker, whereas 3463 (74.7%) did not receive an oral beta-blocker. Beta-blocker continuation was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality within 90 days of hospital admission (hazard ratio 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98; p = 0.03) and shorter hospital stay (incidence rate ratio 0.39; 95% CI, 0.38-0.41; p < 0.001). There was no significant association between beta-blocker continuation and in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.60; 95% CI, 0.30-1.20; p = 0.15).
conclusionsContinuation of chronic beta-blockers in a broad population of patients admitted with suspected infection was associated with improved clinical outcomes. Our findings support the need for controlled experimental studies evaluating the role of chronic beta-blocker continuation among patients hospitalized with possible sepsis.
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