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Friday, March 21, 2014

MANY DISCHARGED HEART ATTACK PATIENTS MAY NOT BE GIVEN APPROPRIATE DOSES OF MEDICATIONS

MedPage Today (8/22, Phend, 185K) reports that research published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that while most “heart attack patients leave the hospital on secondary prevention medications, only about a third get appropriate doses.” The researchers found that “initial dose was key, because about three-quarters of those who didn’t go home on a dose within 75% of the dose proven effective in landmark trials didn’t get an increase during follow-up care.”

CardioSource (8/22, 2K) reports that the researchers “note that their results ‘may explain why the findings from clinical trials, where there was clear evidence of benefit for each medicine promoted by performance measures, have been discordant from those in clinical practice, where the impact of performance measures on reducing mortality has been underwhelming.’”

HeartWire (8/22, Wood, 5K) reports that Dr. Christopher Cannon, in an editorial accompanying the study, wrote, “In our efforts to offer high-quality care, we usually check to make sure that all appropriate, guideline-recommended medications are used but really haven’t paid as much attention to the dose of these medications, and thus this paper is a real eye-opener.”


POSTED BY:  Steven Almany M.D.

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