Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (7)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brotons, C.
Right arrow Articles by Pinar, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Brotons, C.
Right arrow Articles by Pinar, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Family Practice Vol. 20, No. 1, 32-35
© Oxford University Press 2003

Clinical Research

Prophylactic treatment after myocardial infarction in primary care: how far can we go?

Carlos Brotons, Gaietà Permanyer, Valeria Pacheco, Irene Moral, Aida Ribera, Purificación Cascant and Josep Pinar On Behalf Of The Premise Study Group

Unit of Clinical Epidemiology and Hospital/Primary Care Research Unit—Cardiology Department, Hospital General Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Pg. Vall d’Hebron, 119–129, 08035 Barcelona, Spain.

Correspondence to Carlos Brotons; E-mail: cbrotons{at}eapsardenya.net

Background. Despite best practice, it may not be achievable in some patients to reach the optimal goals of secondary prevention recommendations for various reasons, such as co-morbidity, contraindications for some drugs or side effects.

Objective. Our aim was to estimate the achievable standards for audit purposes in primary care for prophylactic treatment of secondary prevention of myocardial infarction.

Methods. We conducted a survey of consecutive patients with a hospital diagnosis of first acute myocardial infarction during 1997 who were identified from discharge books from four hospitals and interviewed at their primary health centre 2 years after admission. The achievable standard for a prophylactic drug was then defined as the proportion of patients that could benefit from the treatment excluding those that for one justified reason or another were off medication.

Results. Three hundred and sixty-nine patients were interviewed in the follow-up. Aspirin or another antiplatelet regimen was prescribed in 86.9 patients, ß-blockers in 50.2%, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in 32.5% and lipid-lowering drugs in 52%. The estimated achievable standards for those prescribed drugs were 94.5, 71,8, 50.5 and 69.8%, respectively.

Conclusions. There is an underuse of prophylactic drug therapies after myocardial infarction. The standards established in this study for secondary preventive drug treatment might be achieved through a reasonable effort by GPs working in primary care committed to improving the quality of care.

Keywords. Myocardial infarction, prophylactic treatment, standards.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Epidemiol. Community HealthHome page
I Gemmell, R F Heller, P McElduff, K Payne, G Butler, R Edwards, M Roland, and P Durrington
Population impact of stricter adherence to recommendations for pharmacological and lifestyle interventions over one year in patients with coronary heart disease
J Epidemiol Community Health, December 1, 2005; 59(12): 1041 - 1046.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Qual Saf Health CareHome page
M Weiner, T E Stump, C M Callahan, J N Lewis, and C J McDonald
Pursuing integration of performance measures into electronic medical records: beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist medications
Qual. Saf. Health Care, April 1, 2005; 14(2): 99 - 106.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.