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To: Anthony Wong who wrote (253)	6/8/1998 5:56:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Bristol-Myers, Merck, Zeneca Drugs Cut Heart Attack Deaths Bloomberg News June 8, 1998, 1:24 p.m. PT Bristol-Myers, Merck, Zeneca Drugs Cut Heart Attack Deaths Dallas, June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Drugs used to treat high blood pressure from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Merck & Co., Zeneca Plc and others increased survival rates if given to patients immediately following a heart attack, a new study says. An analysis of four clinical trials involving 100,000 heart attack patients found the drugs known as angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE, inhibitors saved five lives for every 1,000 treated. The benefits were most pronounced in high-risk patients -- those with low blood pressure, a previous heart attack, diabetes or other complications -- with about 14 lives saved for every 1,000 treated, the study found. ''For most individuals, ACE-inhibitor therapy may be started immediately -- during the first few hours of a heart attack,'' said Maria Grazia Franzosi, a pharmacologist from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, Italy, who led the study. ACE inhibitors also protected some patients from heart failure, one of the major causes of disability following a heart attack, the study found. Patients get the most benefit from the drugs in the first month after a heart attack when the risk of death is highest, Franzosi said. The study, paid for in part by the drug companies, appears in tomorrow's Circulation, a medical journal from the American Heart Association. The study shows ACE-inhibitors have earned their place along with aspirin and thrombolytic drugs, used to break up blood clots, for the treatment of heart attacks, said Marc A. Pfeffer from the cardiovascular division of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in an editorial. ACE-inhibitors block a chemical that causes blood vessels to constrict, allowing them to widen and lower blood pressure. --Michelle Fay Cortez in Ithaca, New York (607) 272-1174, through