Does atenolol differ from other β-adrenergic blockers?

Table 1 Risk ratios for myocardial infarction among hypertensive patients treated with non-atenolol versus atenolol β-blockers

	Number of studies	Mean Risk ratio	Median risk ratio	Credibility interval		Probability of risk ratio ≤ 0.90
				2.5 – 97.5 %	5 – 95 %
Studies that only included comparison with non-β-blockers	8	0.836	0.828	0.633 – 1.078	0.664 – 1.031	0.836
Studies that only included comparison with placebo	6	0.918	0.906	0.711 – 1.172	0.734 – 1.125	0.475
All studies included	14	0.868	0.867	0.727 – 1.023	0.750 – 0.992	0.689
All studies except MRC Old atenolol versus other antihypertensive drugs	13	0.882	0.883	0.742 – 1.039	0.758 – 1.016	0.616

Four outputs with 100 000 iterations each of Monte Carlo sampling with a Bayesian method giving ratios of risks of myocardial infarctions in hypertensive patients using non-atenolol β-adrenergic blockers versus using atenolol, respectively, with data from studies involving non β-blocker drugs, studies with placebo groups and with data from both kinds of studies