Painkillers Linked to Heart Failure Risk

Painkillers, such as ibuprofen, are linked with a small increased risk of first hospital admission for heart failure, say researchers in Spain.

The study, published in the online British Medical Journal Monday, suggests that there would be one extra first hospital admission for heart failure for every 1,000 people aged between 60 and 84 taking NSAIDs.

However, this could rise to three additional cases among patients aged 70 and older with conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney failure, the study in Heart said. Researchers at the Spanish Centre for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research in Madrid reviewed the patient records of more than 228,660 patients from Jan. 1, 1997, to the end of 2000.

The authors base their findings on data from the General Practice Research Database, which holds the anonymous medical records of millions of patients registered with family doctors in Britain.

Fourteen percent of patients were taking NSAIDs at the time of their admission compared with 10 percent of the comparison group of randomly selected people. Half of those admitted to hospital were men, and half were aged between 70 and 79.