Drugs affect initial heart symptoms

Taking prescription beta blocker or statin drugs appears to boost the chances of having only mild chest pain instead of a heart attack as the first symptom of heart disease.

Scientists studied 1,400 patients newly diagnosed with heart disease to try to pinpoint why some had a heart attack while others experienced chest pain known as exercise-induced angina, which is far less dangerous.

Twice as many of the chest pain patients had filled prescriptions for a beta blocker or a statin during the previous five months, they found.

Previous studies had shown those types of drugs cut heart disease risk overall, but the new research is the first to demonstrate they may reduce the chances of someone having a sudden heart attack without earlier symptoms.

“If there are warning symptoms like angina with exercise, there is enough time to see a doctor and get started on effective treatments that reduce risk,” said Mark Hlatky, one of the study’s authors and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University.

The study involved patients enrolled in a Kaiser Permanente health insurance plan in Northern California. Men were ages 45 to 74, and women were 55 to 74.

Among 916 patients whose first heart disease symptom was a heart attack, 20% were taking statins. In a group of 468 patients with chest pain, 40% took statins.

Nineteen percent of heart attack patients were on beta blockers, compared with 48% of those with chest pain.

The study was published in the Feb. 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.