The Duke researchers presented their findings at a meeting in Atlanta of the American College of Cardiology. A major study that concludes doctors could avoid 250,000 hospital admissions in the United States each year by sharply increasing doses of a standard medicine used to treat congestive heart failure. Researchers say they hope the findings will result in an immediate change in the way doctors prescribe the medicine, known as ACE inhibitors. The heart drug relaxes blood vessels, reducing resistance to circulation, and is one of the medicines usually prescribed for heart failure. Several studies have shown that ACE inhibitors slow the progression of heart disease when given in high doses, but the drugs sometimes cause kidney problems and dangerously low blood pressure.
Doctors typically give much smaller doses in the belief that it is safer and works just as well.
Estrogen could help men Another study, by Dr. Satyendra Giri of Hartford Hospital and the University of Connecticut, found that low doses of estrogen given to men reduce the levels of blood fats and other substances associated with heart disease. The men who took estrogen also had lower blood pressure. Estrogen is known to protect postmenopausal woman from heart disease. Unblocking arteries In another study, researchers found implanting a stent, a coil of steel mesh, after balloon angioplasty can further improve blood flow in patients with blocked coronary arteries. Patients who received a stent were less likely to need further treatment for the same blood vessel than those who received the balloon angioplasty alone, said Dr. Christopher Buller of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.