Secondary Prevention Beyond Hospital Discharge for Acute Coronary Syndrome: Evidence-Based Recommendations

Publication date: July 2016 Source:Canadian Journal of Cardiology, Volume 32, Issue 7, Supplement Author(s): David H. Fitchett, Shaun G. Goodman, Lawrence A. Leiter, Peter Lin, Robert Welsh, James Stone, Jean Grégoire, Philip Mcfarlane, Anatoly Langer In the past 3 decades, a better understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease has resulted in innovations in the treatment and prevention of its clinical manifestations such as death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. After an acute coronary syndrome there are short- and long-term risks of subsequent cardiovascular events. This leads to opportunities to initiate strategies to reduce complications resulting from myocardial injury (cardiac protection) and to prevent recurrent acute coronary events (vascular protection). The results from clinical trials inform best practice and guidelines for patient management. Despite clear and consistent guidelines, an important number of patients are not receiving these treatments. Moreover, many others do not receive treatment that follows the strategy proven in the clinical trial and this is associated with a significant loss of opportunities to improve outcomes. The Canadian Heart Research Centre has therefore assembled a panel of experts to provide a review of available data and distill it to specific evidence-based recommendations that can be used by specialists and primary care physicians as a platform for secondary prevention. The therapeutic recom...
Source: Canadian Journal of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research