Issue 181 Item 11 Ace Inhibitor Helps Diabetics Live Longer After Heart Attack

Diabetics improve chances of survival after a heart attack if they take a ACE inhibitor.

In fact, diabetics seemed to benefit more from these drugs than people without a sugar disorder.

ACE inhibitors as captopril, lisinopril, or enalapril are widely prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure.

The findings, which are reported in The American Journal of Cardiology, are based on a study of 533 diabetics and 1646 nondiabetics who experienced a heart attack in Israel in 1996. About half of the subjects in each group received ACE inhibitors after their attack.

In both groups, factors associated with ACE inhibitor use included older age, female gender, and a history of heart attacks.
In the year after the heart attack, diabetic patients treated with an ACE inhibitor were 53 percent less likely to die than their peers who were not treated with these drugs, lead author Dr. Shmuel Gottlieb, from Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, and colleagues note.

ACE inhibitors also seemed to improve survival in the nondiabetic group, but the benefit was not as great as that seen in the diabetics.

"The beneficial effect observed (in this study) supports the widespread use of ACE inhibitors in diabetic patients after acute MI," the authors conclude. American Journal of Cardiology, November 1, 2003.

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Did YOU KNOW:
After adjusting for age, more men than women (26 percent compared to 19 percent) with diabetes reported having coronary heart disease than men and women without diabetes (9 percent compared to 5 percent). CDC November 2003