Calcium channel blocker reduces adverse events in heart patients

By Martin March, | Health | 0 Comments

A study finds that the calcium channel blocker amlodipine and, to a lesser extent, the ACE inhibitor enalapril are helpful to heart patients.
There has been uncertainty for the last 30 years or so on how useful blood pressure drugs are in people with heart disease. A team at the Cleveland Clinic, USA, reveals that the calcium channel blocker amlodipine can reduce heart attacks and heart disease-related deaths. They followed a group of nearly 2,000 patients with heart disease, assigning them to amlodipine or to a different type of drug, enalapril, which is an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, or to placebo.

Blood pressure was lowered effectively in both groups on active drugs, and there was a clear reduction in adverse events on both amlodipine and, to a lesser extent, enalapril. What remains to be determined is how low blood pressure should go in heart patients to give them the best chance of avoiding a heart attack. Meanwhile, a sub-group in this study underwent investigation of the extent of atherosclerosis in their arteries. This showed that amlodipine was capable of slowing the progression of the thickening of the arteries.