Assessing the implementation of the recommendations on secondary cardiovascular prevention in patients after myocardial infarction (a pharmaco-epidemiologic study)

Aim. To assess the real clinical practice implementation of the recommendations on secondary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in patients after myocardial infarction (MI). Material and methods. In total, 6,000 ambulatory medical cards were randomly selected from all cards of the patients visited the city cardiology dispanser in 2006. Among the selected cards, 752 belonged to patients with an MI in anamnesis. The information on main CVD risk factors (RFs), achievement of target levels of body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), total cholesterol (TCH), and low-density lipoprotein CH (LDL-CH), as well as the data on pharmaceutical treatment, invasive diagnostics and therapy of coronary heart disease (CH D), were analysed. Results. Inadequate attention of ambulatory specialists to the main modifiable and non-modifiable CVD RFs was observed. The prevalence of achieved target levels of BMI, BP, TCH, and LDL-CH was very low. In post-MI patients, anti-aggregants, statins and anticoagulants as a part of the pharmaceutical secondary CVD prevention, were not administered often enough by the specialists working at polyclinics and the cardiology dispanser. The usage of invasive diagnostics and treatment of CH D remained low. Conclusion. The recommendations on secondary CVD prevention in post-MI patients were implemented inadequately