Abstract :
The efficacy of β blockers in managing patients with post–acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was established based on randomized controlled trials predating the era of modern therapy in Western populations. We compared the effects of β blockers on cardiovascular events with those of calcium antagonists in Japanese post-AMI patients on modern reperfusion therapy by performing a multicenter, prospective, randomized, open-blind end point study. Five hundred forty-five patients were assigned to the β-blocker group and 545 patients to the calcium antagonist group. The mean follow-up period was 455 days. There was no significant difference in the incidence of cardiovascular death (1.7% vs 1.1%), reinfarction (0.9% vs 1.3%), uncontrolled unstable angina (11.0% vs 10.6%), and nonfatal stroke (0.7% vs 0.2%) between the 2 groups. However, the incidences of heart failure and coronary spasm were significantly higher in the β-blocker group than in the calcium antagonist group (4.2% vs 1.1%, p = 0.001; 1.2% vs 0.2%, p = 0.027, respectively). We conclude that the cardiovascular event rate is substantially lower in Japanese post-AMI patients receiving modern therapy than in those reported in the West, and that there are no significant differences in the cardiovascular event rate between the β-blocker and calcium antagonist groups.
