Effect of Sodium Nitroprusside on Mortality in Acute Myocardial Infarction

We gave sodium nitroprusside by intravenous infusion to 163 randomly selected patients during the first 24 hours after hospitalization for typical acute myocardial infarction, and we studied its effects on mortality at one week, on the incidence of cardiogenic shock, on clinical signs of left ventricular failure, and on peak levels of creatine kinase isoenzyme MB. A control group of 165 patients received standard medical treatment and infusion of 5 per cent glucose. The end point of the study was a significant reduction in mortality in the nitroprusside group; this was reached when five deaths had occurred in this group, as compared with 18 among the controls (P