Yusuf predicted that if 30 percent of people worldwide who should be on ramipril 400,000 lives could be saved a year and another 600,000 heart attacks or strokes would be prevented. However, Yusuf and colleagues did not endorse ramipril as a single drug treatment. Yusuf noted that patients in the HOPE trial were on numerous other medications, including those for treatment of cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes. That idea is rubbish. You are going to need several drugs.
ACE inhibitors are a class of drugs used in controlling high blood pressure.
Sleight said he believes that other ACE-inhibitors would provide similar results. Because the study had so many participants and was continued for four to six years, it was able to show a distinct advantage over placebo in a vast number of groups of patients, said Yusuf. He said analysis of the data showed similar benefits for people with diabetes, high blood pressure, those who had previous heart attacks or strokes and for those with other blood vessel disease. Those systems include the blood vessels in the heart, the brain and the legs. Another part of the HOPE study looked at whether vitamin E would also reduce cardiovascular risk.