American College of Cardiology

ACC 49th Annual Scientific Session
Late-Breaking Clinical Trials
in Interventional Cardiology (#72)
Wednesday, March 15, 2000 (10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.)

(ANAHEIM, CALIF.)—A past study suggested that the drug amlodipine may prolong life in some patients with moderate-to-severe heart failure, a chronic condition of poor blood circulation often due to a weakly contracting heart. Now a randomized trial may determine for sure whether amlodipine can indeed reduce mortality in the same subset of heart failure patients, those whose condition is not caused by a history of heart attacks.

Dr. Milton Packer will present results of the second Prospective Randomized Amlodipine Survival Evaluation (PRAISE-2) at the American College of Cardiology 49th Annual Scientific Session in Anaheim, Calif. In PRAISE-2, more than 1,600 patients with functional class III or IV (moderate-to-severe) nonischemic heart failure were randomized to receive standard drug therapy plus either amlodipine or a placebo for up to three-and-a-half years. Dr. Packer, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, will make his presentation at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 15.

Patients with heart disease often take calcium channel blockers to lower blood pressure and reduce the heart's oxygen needs. The first PRAISE trial found that amlodipine had no effect on death or cardiac hospitalizations when given to a broad range of heart failure patients. But in an analysis only of patients with nonischemic heart failure—which has many possible causes including hypertension, heart-valve disease, chronic alcoholism, and viral infections—amlodipine treatment was associated with a highly significant 45 percent reduction in the risk of death over several years.

The second PRAISE study was soon launched to test the validity of the first trial's significant amlodipine finding in patients with nonischemic heart failure.

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