Nation IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Hypertension Drug Cuts Risk to Heart

The first major study of a new blood-pressure drug found that it significantly reduces the risk of heart attack deaths and should be widely used, doctors said. Bristol-Myers’ Capoten, sold under the generic name captopril, lowered mortality rates among patients who had heart attacks. The report predicted that perhaps 15,000 lives could be saved yearly by giving the drug to about 250,000 Americans whose hearts are moderately damaged by heart attacks each year. Dr. Eugene Braunwald of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Dallas that the drug was found to slow swelling of the left heart ventricle.