The Polypill at 20 - What Have We Learned?

Characteristics and efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in the therapeutic strategy of chronic coronary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) has always been controversial in its therapeutic strategy. Although invasive treatment and optimal medication therapy (OMT) are the most commonly used treatments, doctors continue to debate the best strategy. However, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for CCS is effective clinically.

METHODS

To identify potentially eligible observational and experimental studies, we searched Pubmed, the Web of Science, and the China National Knowledge Internet. To be eligible, studies had to report with end-of treatment outcomes, such as major adverse cardiac events (MACE), deaths from myocardial infarctions (MI), all-cause mortality, angina, cardiac mortality, the effectiveness rate of electrocardiographs, and the reduction rate of the Nitroglycerin tablets. Risk differences (RDs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were calculated based on random-effects models or fixed-effects models. Citation screening, data abstraction, risk assessment, and strength-of-evidence grading were completed by 2 independent reviewers.

RESULTS

In Section 1 (13 studies, involving 17,287 patients), showed no significant difference between invasive treatment and medication treatment in MACE (RD = -0.04, 95% CI = -0.08 to 0.00, I2 = 76.4 %), all-cause mortality (RD = -0.01, 95%CI = -0.022 to 0.01, I2 = 73.44 %), MI (RD = 0.00, 95%CI = -0.00 to 0.01, I2 = 0.00 %) and cardiac mortality (RD = 0.00, 95 %CI = -0.01 to 0.01, I2 = 34.9 %). In Section 2 (21 studies, including 1820 patients), compared with WM treatment, TCM + WM treatment increased ECG effectiveness by 18 %, angina effectiveness by 20 %, and stopping or reducing Nitroglycerin tablets by 20 %. In Section 3 (25 studies, including 2859 patients) showed that TCM revealed a better electrocardiogram effective rate (RD = 0.10, 95 %CI = 0.05 to 0.14, I2 = 44.7 %) and angina effective rate (RD = 0.12, 95 %CI = 0.09 to 0.15, I2 = 44.9 %). We identified that TCM treatment properties of "Circulating blood and transforming stasis" and application of warm/heat-properties medicines were frequently used in CCS treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

TCM treatment has shown superior beneficial cardioprotective in CCS therapy strategy, among which "Circulating blood and transforming stasis" and the application of warm/heat-properties medicine are its characteristics.

The polypill in the primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes: Overcoming barriers to implementation

This commentary, linked to our paper in the same issue of the Journal of Medical Screening, discusses the reluctance to consider and adopt the polypill in the primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes, access to the polypill as a public health service, the formulation of the polypill in current use, its prescription as an unlicensed medicine, and what can be done to facilitate the adoption of the polypill approach as a routine public health service.

The polypill strategy in cardiovascular disease prevention: It's time for its implementation

A polypill strategy has been demonstrated to improve treatment adherence in several cardiovascular disease (CVD) settings. However, data on the prognostic impact in the secondary prevention setting have been scarce. The Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in the Elderly trial, the results of which have been recently published, has demonstrated a benefit in terms of major adverse CVD event reduction. This finding, in addition to previous evidence, should lead to a broader polypill implementation in CVD prevention.

Drug-Drug-Gene Interactions in Cardiovascular Medicine

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of both morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is widely accepted that both concomitant medications (drug-drug interactions, DDIs) and genomic factors (drug-gene interactions, DGIs) can influence cardiovascular drug-related efficacy and safety outcomes. Although thousands of DDI and DGI (aka pharmacogenomic) studies have been published to date, the literature on drug-drug-gene interactions (DDGIs, cumulative effects of DDIs and DGIs) remains scarce. Moreover, multimorbidity is common in cardiovascular disease patients and is often associated with polypharmacy, which increases the likelihood of clinically relevant drug-related interactions. These, in turn, can lead to reduced drug efficacy, medication-related harm (adverse drug reactions, longer hospitalizations, mortality) and increased healthcare costs. To examine the extent to which DDGIs and other interactions influence efficacy and safety outcomes in the field of cardiovascular medicine, we review current evidence in the field. We describe the different categories of DDIs and DGIs before illustrating how these two interact to produce DDGIs and other complex interactions. We provide examples of studies that have reported the prevalence of clinically relevant interactions and the most implicated cardiovascular medicines before outlining the challenges associated with dealing with these interactions in clinical practice. Finally, we provide recommendations on how to manage the challenges including but not limited to expanding the scope of drug information compendia, interaction databases and clinical implementation guidelines (to include clinically relevant DDGIs and other complex interactions) and work towards their harmonization; better use of electronic decision support tools; using big data and novel computational techniques; using clinically relevant endpoints, preemptive genotyping; ensuring ethnic diversity; and upskilling of clinicians in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.