title: Acute myocardial infarction mortality related to use of calcium antagonists before admission to hospital.
abstract: We investigated whether prior use of calcium antagonists in 80 (16.8%) out of 477 patients (64% males) admitted with acute myocardial infarction (MI) had any impact on in-hospital mortality. Patients using calcium antagonists were slightly older (74 years vs. 72 years, 2P = 0.039) than those not taking them and fewer were male patients. Previous MI, diabetes mellitus, and prior use of aspirin, beta-blockers, and long-acting nitrates were more frequent in patients on calcium antagonists. In contrast, fewer patients on calcium antagonists prior to symptoms received thrombolytic treatment (21.3% vs. 34.8%, 2P = 0.018). The study had an observational exposed/nonexposed design, and we looked for both crude and adjusted effects. Of the 83 patients (17.4%) who died during hospitalization, 18 patients were in the calcium antagonist group (22.5%). The odds ratio (OR) for these patients to die in the hospital was 1.48 and the 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.78-2.78; 2P = 0.19. When adjusting for confounders (gender, age, smoking habit, previous MI, and diabetes mellitus, as well as prior use of aspirin, beta-blockers, long-acting nitrates, and thrombolytic treatment at entry) OR was 1.08 and 95% CI 0.57-2.05; 2P = 0.85. Thus, we found no excess in-hospital mortality in patients with acute MI using calcium antagonists prior to the onset of symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacotherapeutics, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Landmark
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reikvam
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdelnoor
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sivertssen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aursnes
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004347:Drug Interactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality*; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio
chemical_list: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers