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ANGLETON , Texas ( AP ) At the crux of the nation 's first Vioxx-related civil trial under way is whether Merck & Co. ' s once lucrative painkiller caused a Texas man 's 2001 death from arrhythmia.While the New Jersey pharmaceutical giant pulled the drug from the market last year after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or more , the company claims no studies link Vioxx to arrhythmia , or an irregular heartbeat . The lawsuit by Ernst 's widow , Carol Ernst , is the first of more than 4,200 Vioxx-related state and federal lawsuits to go before a jury.The New Jersey pharmaceutical giant pulled the drug from the market last year after a study showed it doubled risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or more , but the company claims no studies link Vioxx to arrhythmia.Last week Merck 's lawyers presented evidence that the company studied whether Vioxx caused arrhythmias in nine clinical trials before the drug went on the market in 1999 . Fallon , who is based in New Orleans , is overseeing all the federal Vioxx cases at this stage.Last week , Rochester rejected Merck 's motion that the Alabama state court suit be dismissed and put attorneys for both sides into private talks over a possible settlement . The United States was plunged into a state of war yesterday by an enemy it could not see . Such testing led to Merck 's decision to pull Vioxx from the market last year when a study showed the drug could double risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer.Reicin testified in a lawsuit over the death of Robert Ernst , a 59-year-old Texas man who died in his sleep after taking the once-popular painkiller for eight months to ease aches in his hands . " I believe the phone call was the absolute trigger , " Tyberg said.The first Vioxx trial in August resulted in a multimillion-dollar verdict for a Vioxx user 's widow in Texas . " She expressed disappointment that she would n't be inheriting it , " Arrant , 26 , testified.Speaking before a packed courtroom , the prosecution 's most anticipated witness said that Waterman even bragged about fooling friends and teachers with crocodile tears . Merck pulled Vioxx from the market last September when a study showed it could double the risk of heart attack or stroke . Vioxx-maker Merck & Co. took the multibillion-dollar selling drug off the market last year when a study showed it could double risk of heart attack or stroke if taken 18 months or longer .