Chronic Use of Continuous Dosing of Long-Term Nitrates Does Not Prevent Cardiac Events in Patients with Severe Acute Myocardial Infarction

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Abstract
This study was performed to investigate the effects of the chronic use of continuous, not eccentric, dosing of nitrates on cardiac events in patients with severe acute myocardial infarction. A total of 1,303 patients with healed myocardial infarction were divided into two groups: treatment with nitrates or nontreatment. Primary end points were nonfatal and fatal recurrent myocardial infarction, death from congestive heart failure and sudden death. Among the 725 patients treated with nitrates, 45 patients (6.2%) experienced cardiac events during the observation period, whereas only 17 of the 578 patients treated without nitrates (2.9%) had cardiac events. This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01; odds ratio 2.18, 95% confidence interval 1.24–3.86). In Killip class II–IV patients, the incidence of cardiac events in patients with nitrates was significantly greater than in patients without nitrates (18.8 vs. 3.5%, p < 0.05). The chronic use of continuous, not eccentric, dosing of nitrates did not prevent cardiac events in patients with severe acute myocardial infarction.