From CBC News:
An inhaled lung medication used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchitis may slightly increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from coronary disease, researchers said Tuesday.
The increased risks were found in people who took tiotropium, sold in Canada and the U.S. as Spiriva, or the older medication ipratropium, available generically and under the brand name Atrovent, for at least a month.
The findings, which appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, mean that for every 40 patients using either drug for one year, there would be one extra death linked to the medication, said study author Dr. Sonal Singh of Wake Forest University's medical school.
The drugs are taken to relax muscles and open airways in the lungs.
The researchers analyzed data from 17 international studies involving more than 14,700 people to compare health risks of people who took the drugs to treat symptoms of COPD to those who took other inhaled medications for the same symptoms or a placebo. ...more
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