Several large scale clinical trials showed that early ACE inhibitor treatment in patients with acute myocardial infarction reduced 30-day mortality. While the short-term evidence of benefit and risks appears to be consistent among trials, scarce data are available with respect to the long-term effects of short-term treatments. This study shows that the early reduction in mortality rate observed among patients treated with captopril persists for up to 3 years. This suggests that the benefit achieved in the acute phase in not lost even after a long period of time.