Many hospitalized heart patients not getting protective statin medications upon discharge
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Heart Disease Weekly -- While patients who are discharged from the hospital after treatment for heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral artery disease, should be on statin medications to reduce their risk of reoccurrence, very few of them remain on the drugs long-term -- and many never even receive a statin prescription, according to a new study.
Researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City examined the records of 62,070 adult patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease from 1999 to 2013 who had survived their initial hospitalization and were followed for at least three years, or until they died.
While 71 percent of the 62,070 patients discharged for those medical conditions were prescribed statins, just 37.4 percent were on statins a year later. Three years after leaving the hospital, researchers found the number had dropped to 30.1 percent.
Researchers say these figures are significant because statins are a class of drug therapy that lowers cholesterol …
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(2017-12-03), Many hospitalized heart patients not getting protective statin medications upon discharge, Heart Disease Weekly, 37, ISSN: 1532-4613, BUTTER® ID: 014742859