Study: Drug Combos Best for Heart Disease

A British study finds that heart disease patients who take a combination of three drugs are more likely to survive than those taking a single drug.

The report in the British Medical Journal is the first survey to examine survival rates for coronary disease patients taking different drug combinations.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham tracked 13,000 patients diagnosed with ischaemic heart disease between 1996 and 2003.

The study found an 83 percent reduction in deaths among patients who took a combination of statins (cholesterol lowering drugs), aspirin and beta-blockers (a type of blood pressure lowering drug). Adding an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, another blood-pressure-reduction drug, provided no additional benefit.

Taking beta-blockers alone reduced deaths by 19 percent, and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors alone by 20 percent.

The authors say that the study shows that a combination of beta-blockers, statins, aspirin and folic acid in a single pill, nicknamed the polypill, would benefit patients with heart disease.