Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors prescription is associated with longer survival among patients hospitalized for congestive heart failure who have preserved systolic function: a long-term follow-up study.

Background: The use of inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is strongly indicated by a diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF) with deteriorated systolic function (SF), but their effects on patients with CHF but no systolic deterioration have not been clarified. We focused this study on the evaluation of the influence of ACE inhibitors on survival among CHF patients with preserved SF, but also determined the effect of these drugs on the prognosis of our patients with deteriorated SF.

Method And Results: We studied 416 patients, aged 72.