A range of common drugs prescribed for ailments from sore throats to indigestion may increase people's risk of dying from a sudden heart attack.

    BEIJING, May 11 -- A range of common drugs prescribed for ailments from sore throats to indigestion may increase people's risk of dying from a sudden heart attack, researchers have warned.

    The study in Netherlands concluded the drugs interfere with the heart's electrical activity controlling heartbeat and they were associated with a three-fold increased risk of sudden death due to cardiac arrest. 

    The drugs, including certain gastric, anti-psychotic and antibiotic drugs, could cause up to 1,200 heart attack deaths a year in the UK and 15,000 in Europe and the US.

    Of the seven drugs studied, two are the antibiotics erythromycin and clarithromycin. Others on the risk-list are cisapride and domperidone, which are used to treat gastro-intestinal conditions, and the anti-psychotic medications chlorpromazine, haloperidol and pimozide.

    All prolong the heart's QTc interval - a measurement of the electrical activity linked to the contraction of heart muscle cells. Drugs that increase the QTc interval can cause life-threatening disruptions of heart rhythms.

    The findings, which are published in the European Heart Journal, emerged from a study of 775 cases of sudden heart death between 1995 and 2003.

    (Agencies)