Study Showed Prevention of Heart Attacks Within Three Months After Hospitalization Significantly Averted Future Heart Attacks...( Long-term benefits of preventing he...),Health

Long-term benefits of preventing heart attacks highlighted in new study

presented at global health outcomes meeting

ATHENS, Greece, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Despite substantial progress in the diagnosis and treatment of heart attack patients, prevention of recurrent heart attacks continues to be a major clinical challenge. A new study showed that patients who suffered a non-fatal heart attack within the first three months of hospitalization for chest pain had a significantly higher risk for dying or having another heart attack (in the following three months to four years) compared with patients who did not experience a heart attack during the same initial period. The findings from the more-than-15,000- patient study were presented today at the annual meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), November 8-11.

In the study, patients who suffered a heart attack during the first three months after hospital admission for coronary artery disease compared with those who did not experience a heart attack during the same period were 62 percent (p<0.001) more likely to die and 84 percent (p<0.001) more likely to have an additional heart attack or death within four years. The increased rate of heart attack and death among patients who had a heart attack remained similar even when the monitoring was extended from a three-to-six month period. The researchers found that patients who suffered a heart attack within the six month period were 61 percent (p<0.001) more likely to die, and 86 percent (p<0.001) were more likely to suffer a recurrent heart attack or death over a four-year period compared with those who did not experience a heart attack.

"This study illustrated that heart attack patients may still suffer severe, life-threatening events over the next several years, even if they appear well," said study investigator David F. Kong, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Division
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