Amsterdam, Netherlands. The second-most popular drug for treating high blood pressure is less effective than other heart attack prevention drugs, and could lead to unnecessary heart damage in some patients, according to a study reported today at the European Cardiology Society in Amsterdam.

The drugs, known as calcium channel blockers, cause nearly 85,000 heart attacks and heart failure cases around the world each year. The incidents, about half of which occur in the United States, could have been avoided, according to the study.

The calcium channel blockers themselves are not harmful, but by forgoing other, more effective drugs, users are more prone to the dangerous symptoms of high blood pressure, according to the study.

But the authors caution people to first check with their physicians before discontinuing use of the drugs. The drugs should not be pulled from the shelf, according to the authors, but physicians should be more careful in prescribing calcium channel blockers as a first-line of defense.

An estimated 28 million people worldwide, including 12.7 million in the United States, use calcium channel blockers to lower high blood pressure.

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