Hormone replacement therapy did not slow progression of heart disease in women with established disease in a study reported on March 13 at the American College of Cardiology conference.
The Estrogen Replacement and Atherosclerosis (ERA) trial found no difference between placebo or treatment (Premarin, with or without progestogen) groups in the rate of progression of coronary artery narrowing. The study involved 309 women, mean age 65.8 years, around 50 per cent of whom had a history of myocardial infarction.
In 1998, a larger study (HERS) also failed to find benefit from HRT in women with established heart disease (PJ, August 29, 1998, p300). Commenting on the two studies, ERA researcher David Herrington (Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre) said: "The message is to make full use of proven therapies, such as cholesterol lowering drugs, and not assume that HRT is an effective alternative for treatment of heart disease." Dr Herrington emphasised that the results did not necessarily apply to younger, healthy women in whom studies were under way to clarify the role of HRT in preventing heart disease.