ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUGS AND FATAL MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION IN PERSONS WITH UNCOMPLICATED HYPERTENSION

We conducted a case-control study to evaluate the risk of fatal myocar dial infarction in otherwise healthy treated hypertensive subjects acc ording to the type of the antihypertensive drug used. The study encomp assed 207 cases and 409 controls matched to cases on age, sex, and gen eral practice. Compared with beta-blocker users, the matched relative risk estimates for fatal myocardial infarction, adjusted for recent bl ood pressure, body mass index, smoking, duration of hypertension, and prior use of other antihypertensive drugs, were 0.7 [95% confidence in terval (CI) = 0.4-1.2] for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor use rs, 0.9 (95% CI = 0.5-1.5) for calcium channel blocker users, and 0.7 (95% CI = 0.4-1.2) for diuretic users.