Optimal Medical Therapy Prescribing Patterns and Disparities Identified in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes at an Academic Medical Center in an Area with High Coronary Heart Disease-Related Mortality

Trends in optimal medical therapy at discharge and clinical outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndrome in Thailand

BACKGROUND

Optimal medical therapy (OMT) is recommended for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) at discharge. This study aimed to assess temporal trends of OMT prescription as a five-drug regimen at discharge and its association with clinical outcomes in patients with ACS in Thailand.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary-care medical center in Thailand. Data were collected from an electronic medical database. Patients were categorized into OMT or non-OMT groups based on their discharge medications. OMT was defined as a combination of aspirin and P2Y12 inhibitors, statins, beta-blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, or angiotensin receptor blockers. The primary outcome was 1-year all-cause mortality. The secondary outcome was major adverse cardiac events (MACE) which was defined as a composite of non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, and all-cause mortality. The prescription trends were also estimated. A multivariate Cox's proportional hazard model was used to assess the association of OMT prescriptions at discharge with all-cause mortality and MACE.

RESULTS

A total of 3531 patients discharged with ACS [mean age, 69.5 (SD 12.4) years; 58.3% male] were identified. Only 42.6% were discharged with OMT. The rates of OMT prescriptions did not change over time. However, the prescription of OMT with high-intensity statin was significantly increased from 5.0% in 2013 to 38.3% in 2018 (p for trend <0.001). Multivariable analyses indicated that OMT significantly reduced all-cause mortality (adjusted HR: 0.77; 95%CI: 0.63-0.95; p=0.012) and MACE (adjusted HR 0.84; 95%CI: 0.71-0.99; p = 0.044). Subgroup analysis indicated that patients receiving OMT with high-intensity statins exhibited survival benefits (adjusted HR: 0.72; 95%CI: 0.56-0.92; p=0.008).

CONCLUSIONS

The five-drugs comprising OMT were associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality and MACE in patients with ACS. Nevertheless, OMT prescribing remains underused and could be enhanced in the real-world setting.

Long-Term Quality of Prescription for ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) Patients: A Real World 1-Year Follow-Up Study

AIM

American and European associations of cardiology published specific guidelines about recommended drugs for secondary prevention in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Our aim was to assess whether drug prescription for STEMI patients was in accordance with the guidelines at discharge and after 1 year.

METHOD

We used data of 361 patients admitted for STEMI in a tertiary hospital in Switzerland from 2014 to 2016. We assessed the adequacy of prescription of recommended drugs at two time points: discharge and after 1 year. Medications assessed were aspirin, P2Y12 inhibitors, statin, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) and β-blockers. We took into account several criteria like statin dosage (low versus high intensity) and presence of contraindication for consideration of optimal therapy. Predictors of incomplete prescription of guideline medications were then assessed with multivariate logistic regression models.

RESULTS

From discharge (n = 358) to 1-year follow-up (n = 303), rate of optimal prescription was reduced from 98.6 to 91.7% for aspirin, from 93.9 to 79.1% for P2Y12 inhibitors, from 83.8 to 65.7% for statins, from 98.6 to 95.6% for ACEIs/ARBs, and from 97.1 to 96.9% for β-blockers. Predictors of incomplete prescription of guideline medications at discharge were female sex (odds ratio [OR] 2.54, p = 0.007), active or former smoker status (OR 2.29, p = 0.017), multivessel disease (OR 2.07, p = 0.022), left ventricular ejection fraction < 40% (OR 2.49, p = 0.008), and transfer to cardiac surgery (OR 9.66, p = 0.018). At 1 year, age > 65 (OR 1.92, p = 0.036) remained the only significant predictor.

CONCLUSION

The present study showed a high prescription rate of guideline-recommended medications in a referral center for primary percutaneous coronary intervention. At discharge, women and co-morbid patients were at the highest risk of incomplete prescription of guideline medications, whereas long-term prescription was suboptimal for elderly. A drug lacking at time of discharge was rarely introduced within the year, which underscores the paramount importance of optimal prescription at time of discharge. Strategies like implementing a standardized prescription could reduce the proportion of suboptimal prescription. It could therefore be one way to improve the long-term quality of care of our patients to the highest level. This study used local data from AMIS Plus-National Registry of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Switzerland (NCT01305785).