The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7485 p40
19 January 2008

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Possible cardiac risks with calcium identified

Use of calcium supplements is associated with an increased likelihood of cardiovascular events for post-menopausal women, according to a study published online this week (BMJ Online First, 16 January 2008).

The authors say that the study — a secondary analysis of a randomised trial of 1,471 women receiving calcium or placebo — does not provide definitive conclusions, but that the data “do flag cardiac health as an area of concern in relation to calcium use and mandate that this is assessed carefully in future studies of calcium supplementation”.

Myocardial infarction was more commonly reported for women taking calcium (1g of elemental calcium per day) than those on placebo (45 versus 19 events; P=0.01), and the composite endpoint of myocardial infarction, stroke or sudden death was also more likely in the treatment group (101 versus 54 events; P=0.008).

However, when the reported events were independently adjudicated and unreported events were added from hospital admission databases the findings lost significance.

The authors recommend that the potential for cardiac events be balanced against the likely benefits of calcium on bone in older women.