You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Therapeutics
Antioxidant vitamins did not reduce death, vascular events, or cancer in high risk patients

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ebm.8.1.11

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    (2002) Lancet 360, 23; MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of antioxidant vitamin supplementation in 20 536 high-risk individuals: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.. ;. :. –33..
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    
 
 QUESTION: In patients with a high 5 year risk of death, does antioxidant supplementation reduce death, vascular events, and cancer?

    Design

    Randomised (allocation concealed*), blinded (participants, clinicians, data collectors, and outcome assessors),* placebo controlled trial with mean follow up of 5 years.

    Setting

    69 UK hospitals.

    Patients

    20 536 patients who were 40–80 years of age (28% were ≥ 70 y of age, 75% men); had nonfasting total cholesterol levels ≥3.5 mmol/l; and had a substantial 5 year risk of death because of a history of coronary heart disease (CHD), occlusive disease of noncoronary arteries, or diabetes mellitus or a history of treated hypertension (in men ≥65 y of age). Exclusion criteria included a clear indication for statin therapy according to the patient‘s doctor, abnormal liver or renal function, severe heart failure, severe chronic airway disease, cancer, and indication for high dose vitamin E supplements. Follow up was 99.7%.

    Intervention

    Patients received 2 months of active vitamins during a run …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Sources of funding: UK Medical Research Council; British Heart Foundation; Merck & Co; Roche Vitamins.

    • For correspondence: Heart Protection Study, Clinical Trial Service Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK. hps{at}ctsu.ox.ac.uk

    • Abstract and commentary also published in ACP Journal Club

    • ↵* See glossary.