A report in the 25 September issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine says that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors safely reduce mortality after myocardial infarction in patients with moderate renal insufficiency.

To determine whether ACE inhibitor therapy should be contraindicated in renal insufficiency, Dr. Craig Frances, of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in San Francisco, California, and colleagues evaluated the survival of 20,902 patients aged 65 years and older who had depressed left ventricular function after a confirmed MI. Patients with renal insufficiency are often excluded from ACE inhibitor therapy, the authors explain.

ACE inhibitor treatment improved survival by 37% in patients with elevated serum creatinine levels and by 16% in patients with lower serum creatinine levels, the report indicates. Patients with serum creatinine levels above 265 micromoles/L had 20% lower 1-year survival than patients with lower creatinine levels, the authors report.

Adding aspirin to ACE inhibitor therapy significantly attenuated its benefits, the investigators note. In patients with normal renal function, the combination slightly (but not significantly) increased 1-year mortality, while the survival benefits of ACE inhibitor therapy for patients with renal insufficiency disappeared with the addition of aspirin to the regimen.

"We believe that moderate renal insufficiency should not be considered a contraindication to the use of ACE inhibitor therapy for patients who have poor left ventricular ejection fraction following MI," the authors conclude.