TUESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of beta-blockers and statins not only reduces the risk of heart disease but may also reduce the risk of presenting with an acute myocardial infarction (MI) rather than with stable angina, according to a study in the Feb. 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Alan S. Go, M.D., of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in Oakland, and colleagues studied 1,384 adult patients who presented either with an acute MI (916 patients) or stable exertional angina (468 patients) to ascertain use of cardiac medications, as well as demographic, lifestyle and clinical characteristics.
Males, smokers, the physically inactive and the hypertensive were more likely to present with acute myocardial infarction. Of those who presented with MI, only 19.5 percent had received statins compared with 40.6 percent of the stable angina group. Only 19.1 percent of the MI group received beta-blockers compared with 47 percent of the stable angina group. Recent statin and beta-blocker use were both associated with lower risk of MI.
"While our findings need to be confirmed by randomized studies, they suggest that use of statins and beta-blockers for primary prevention may not only reduce the incidence of coronary disease, but may also increase the likelihood of a more stable, lower risk clinical presentation of coronary atherosclerosis," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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