Supplementation with vitamin E alone is associated with reduced myocardial infarction: A meta-analysis

• We examined the effect of vitamin E alone or in combination with other antioxidants on myocardial infarction.
• Vitamin E appears ineffective when associated with other antioxidants.
• When supplemented alone vitamin E reduces myocardial infarction in interventional trials.

Background and aimsPrevious meta-analyses of interventional trials with vitamin E provided negative results but it remains unclear if this vitamin has some influence on cardiovascular events when supplemented alone. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of vitamin E alone or in combination with other antioxidants on myocardial infarction.Methods and resultsPubmed, ISI Web of Science, SCOPUS and Cochrane database were searched without language restrictions. We investigated randomized clinical trials studying the effect of vitamin E supplementation on myocardial infarction. Sixteen randomized controlled trials of vitamin E treatment were analyzed in this meta-analysis. The dose range for vitamin E was 33–800 IU. Follow-up ranged from 0.5 to 9.4 years. Compared to controls, vitamin E given alone significantly decreased myocardial infarction (3.0% vs 3.4%) (random effects R.R.: 0.82; 95% C.I., 0.70–0.96; p = 0.01). This effect was driven by reduction of fatal myocardial infarction (random effects R.R.: 0.84; 95% C.I., 0.73–0.96; p = 0.01).ConclusionsWhen supplemented alone, vitamin E reduces myocardial infarction in interventional trials while it appears ineffective when associated with other antioxidants.