Heart aided by blood pressure drugs

Drugs used to treat blood pressure could offer “significant benefits” to patients with a common form of heart disease, researchers have said.

In aortic stenosis, the main valve between the heart and the rest of the body narrows and becomes partially blocked.

It is said to affect around five per cent of the population in the developed world and is a growing problem. Patients with the condition often do not notice any symptoms, but when the valve becomes too tight they can experience chest pain and breathlessness when they are being active. Typically, surgery would be carried out to replace the valve. But according to researchers at the University of Dundee and NHS Tayside, when it came to patients without symptoms, it was not known whether other treatments, such as drugs used to treat blood pressure, could help, or even delay the need for an operation.

A team led by Chim Lang, professor of cardiology at the university, studied the records of patients with aortic stenosis who have had heart scans over the last two decades.

They found that patients taking drugs like ACE inhibitors and angiotensin blockers had “significantly lower” death rates and heart troubles.

Prof. Lang said: “Aortic stenosis is a growing problem. Physicians have previously not known whether to continue these ACE inhibitor medications or not. On the one hand, a fall in blood pressure may not be helpful but on the other hand these drugs offer many protective benefits.

“We observed that patients with aortic stenosis who were taking these medications had a better outcome. This observation, however, needs to be confirmed by prospective clinical trials.”