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Black heart attack patients who are treated by a black doctor are no more likely to have cardiac catheterization then black patients treated by a white doctor. Black heart attack patients as a group are less likely to have cardiac catheterization than whites, but a study of 35,676 white patients and 4,039 black patients found this was not caused by the race of the doctor.

Both black and white patients with heart failure appear to benefit from the beta blocker carvedilol, according to a study of 217 black and 877 white patients. Black patients with heart failure generally have a worse outcome than whites and may not respond to medications in the same way as whites.

Black patients with heart failure may not respond to treatment with ACE inhibitors. This was the conclusion of a study of 1,196 white patients and 800 black patients with heart failure who all took the ACE inhibitor enalapril.

Black and white American men have similar death rates from coronary heart disease is the same for black and white Americans. A 30-year study of 2,181 people conducted in the southeastern United States surveyed blood pressure, blood cholesterol, level of education, diabetes status, and whether or not participants were smokers. Causes of death were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases manual. No women, white or black, were recorded as dying from heart disease between the ages of 35 and 44. When age was taken into account and all causes of death were evaluated, black women had a higher mortality rate than white women, but black men did not have a higher rate than white men. Variables associated with death from causes other than coronary heart disease were high cholesterol levels, high systolic blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. These variables were significant for all groups.

The prevalence of tuberculosis among blacks is about twice that of whites; however, this knowledge alone cannot be used to distinguish environmental from genetic factors, nor does it permit distinguishing susceptibility to infection from development of active disease once infected. In controlled environments, however, such distinctions can be made. In 227 nursing homes and two prisons, in which whites and blacks were completely integrated, records of tuberculin testing were examined to determine how many originally tuberculin-negative individuals converted to a tuberculin-positive, events which indicate infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the nursing homes, which represented 25,398 initially negative individuals, the conversion rate for blacks was 19 times that of whites. Similar results were obtained from the examination of prison records. Although blacks have a higher prevalence of tuberculosis, it was found that there was no racial difference in the percentage of blacks or whites who go on to develop clinical tuberculosis once they have been infected. Blacks are apparently more susceptible to tuberculosis than whites, and the factors that govern the progression from infection to disease are independent of those governing initial infection. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

A study published in 2000 confirms that many ethnic minorities do not receive the same level of health care services as whites do. The researchers found that many pharmacies in black communities did not stock opioid drugs. These drugs are used to treat severe pain. -Many pharmacies said they were concerned about theft and people diverting drugs for illicit use. However, even in safe communities, pharmacies in predominantly black communities were still less likely to stock opioid drugs. Half the pharmacists said there was little demand for the drugs, which indicates doctors are not prescribing them.