Impact of cigarette smoking in high-risk patients participating in a clinical trial. A substudy from the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) trial

Background In recent large cardiovascular trials done in stable patients, 14–31% of the participants were smokers; the consequences of smoking in these trials using medications known to reduce cardiovascular events, have not been assessed. Design We evaluated the cardiovascular outcomes according to smoking status of men and women participating in the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation trial. Methods The occurrence of cardiovascular events …