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Title: Statin Therapy Underused in Elderly Patients With Atherosclerosis
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/22A1EA.htm
Doctor's Guide
August 28, 2008

CHICAGO -- August 28, 2008 -- Use of statin therapy to combat the adverse cardiovascular outcomes from atherosclerosis is underused is elders, according to new research published in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

In a 10-year population-based study (1995-2005) of 343,154 elderly patients in Ontario, Canada, researchers discovered an important care gap in the management of older patients with symptomatic atherosclerosis due to the suboptimal prescription of statins.

Of the patients, 69% had coronary artery disease (CAD), 34% had cerebrovascular disease (CVD), and 7% had peripheral arterial disease (PAD). About 46% of the patients were women, and mean patient age was 77.1 years.

The percentage of all atherosclerotic patients who were treated with statins increased from 9.8% to 55.3%. When broken down by each condition, the percentages of patients given statins were as follows: those with CAD went up from 11.8% to 61.2%; patients with CVD increased from 5.3% to 41.2%; and those with PAD rose from 6.8% to 43.3%.

"Even though the use of statin therapy in elderly patients with symptomatic atherosclerosis has increased substantially during the past decade, our study showed many patients remain untreated," said Subodh Verma, MD, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. He added that suboptimal use was greatest among patients with PAD or CVD, or both, and lowest in patients with CAD.

Given the heightened risk of cardiovascular adverse outcomes in patients with atherosclerosis, researchers believe their results have important and immediate implications.

"This was especially evident in patients with CVD and PAD with data from January to March in 2004, that indicated that less than 50% of these patients were on statins," said Dr. Verma.

Co-investigator Mohammed Al-Omran, MD, Division of Vascular Surgery, King Saudi University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, noted that the results of the current study support current literature and underscore the inequities in the use of risk reduction therapies for patients with PAD compared with patients with CAD.

"Our findings highlight the treatment care gaps in patients with atherosclerosis and may be useful for guiding medical interventions, focusing continuing medical education programs, encouraging active discussions on risk reduction therapies at scientific meetings, and other educational outreach programs that aim to bring physicians' practice into agreement with current guidelines for cardiovascular risk reduction," added Dr. Al-Omran.


SOURCE: The Society for Vascular Surgery

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