Angiotensin II receptor blockers in chronic heart failure - Not as ELITE as expected!

As with many large-scale long-term outcome trials, more questions have been posed than answered regarding the potential role of angiotensin II receptor blockers as first-line agents in chronic heart failure. Given the present data, in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction, ACE inhibitors must remain the treatment of choice, owing to the large body of data supporting their use in this clinical syndrome. However, ARBs seems a reasonable alternative for renin-angiotensin axis blockade in the significant number of heart failure patients who are genuinely intolerant of ACE inhibitors. The pendulum has now swung back in favour of ACE inhibition for chronic heart failure, although one can only await with great expectation the results of the ongoing trials comparing not only angiotensin II receptor blockers with ACE inhibitors but a combination of the two with regards tolerability and survival. Whether this potentially useful class of drugs will ultimately become the cornerstone of heart failure therapy in place of, or in addition to, ACE inhibitors is still in debate, but hopefully we should not have to wait too long for the definitive answers.