A study presented at the 62nd annual ACC meeting showed that high doses of vitamins and minerals in heart patients did not reduce the risk of recurrent cardiac events. However, the NIH trial showed that high doses of vitamins and minerals in combination with chelation therapy may provide additional benefits for patients with heart disease. The TACT study confirmed that EDTA chelation therapy combined with high-dose vitamins and minerals is safe and effective in treating patients with prior heart disease. 2012 study showed that chelation therapy reduced the occurrence of cardiac events compared to placebo. Cardiac events included heart attacks, strokes, coronary revascularization, readmissions for angina, and death. Professor Gervasio, the lead expert on the study, concluded that heart patients taking vitamins did not benefit, and that the combination therapy, chelation therapy plus high doses of vitamins, was clearly beneficial, but further studies are needed to clarify this. EDTA chelation was used in 1956 to treat cardiovascular disease. Chelation therapy involves the intravenous administration of synthetic amino acids that bind to certain minerals and metals such as calcium, chromium, and lead. The scholars of this trial evaluated chelation therapy, high doses of vitamins and their combination therapy separately to clarify the individual and synergistic effects of the two treatments. The TACT trial included 1,708 patients with prior heart disease, 82% of whom were male (94%), Caucasian, about half were obese, two-thirds had diabetes (68%), and 83% had hypertension, and had previous CABG, stenting, or balloon dilation, and were randomized to four groups (2 x 2 factorial design to facilitate clarification of the effect of each treatment). Patients were given intravenous 40 chelation therapy or placebo daily for at least 3 hours. Placebo or high-dose vitamins were also given twice daily. The average follow-up period was more than 4 years, and more than half of the patients stopped taking vitamins during the follow-up period. The results showed that taking vitamins and minerals did not reduce primary endpoint events by 27% with vitamins and 30% with placebo, compared to placebo. In contrast, the primary endpoint events were reduced by approximately 26% in the chelator and vitamin treatment groups; compared to 32% in the corresponding placebo group; a statistically significant difference. In these studies, most patients were taking medications for which there was evidence: 84% of patients were taking aspirin, 72% were taking beta-blockers, and 73% were taking statins.