Black adults with hypertension treated with ACE inhibitors had an increased risk for all-cause mortality, stroke and acute MI compared with white adults, according to results of a recent study.

Researchers retrospectively studied 59,316 black and white adults with hypertension enrolled in a municipal health care system in New York. Patients were divided into groups based on race and whether they had received treatment with ACE inhibitors or other therapies such as beta-blockers, thiazide-type diuretics or calcium channel blockers for 6 months or longer after enrollment in the health care system.

During a mean follow-up of 4.5 years, the researchers observed an interaction between race and treatment response. The primary composite outcome occurred more frequently among black adults who were treated with ACE inhibitors compared with other therapies (8.69% vs. 7.74%). The same interaction was not observed among white adults based on ACE inhibitor use or another regimen (6.4% vs. 6.74%).