PRESCRIBED DRUGS FOR SECONDARY PREVENTION IN POSTMYOCARDIAL INFARCTION PATIENTS IN SHIRAZ

Background- Coronary artery diseases are the leading cause of death in the ‎developing countries, including Iran. Continued advances in medical and surgical ‎techniques, combined with effective and focused programs in cardiac rehabilitation, ‎are critical to reduce the overall incidence of coronary artery diseases. Now it is ‎recommended that all survivors of acute myocardial infarction receive antiplatelet ‎drugs, beta-adrenergic blocking agents, ACE inhibitors and statins. However, studies ‎show that the ratio of prescribing these drugs is far lower than ideal. This study has ‎been designed to evaluate these ratios in Iran‏.‏‎
‎ Methods- In a descriptive, cross-sectional retrograde study, the ratio of prescribing the ‎above-mentioned drugs in 912 randomly selected patients from Shiraz University ‎hospitals who met WHO criteria for myocardial infarction from March 2000 to March ‎‎2001 were studied. Trained medical students recorded demographical data, location of ‎infarction, risk factors and pharmacologic therapy at the time of the discharge of the ‎patients from the medical recording files in a standardized questionnaire‏.‏‎
‎ Results- The mean age of the studied patients was 61±12 years. The most frequently ‎prescribed drugs were antiplatelet agents and the least frequent ones were statins. ‎There were statistically significant relationships between cigarette smoking and beta-‎adrenergic blocking agents administration, hyperlipidemia and statins administration ‎and hypertension and ACE inhibitors administration‏.‏‎
‎ Conclusion- There is a need for improvement in secondary prevention in patients with ‎myocardial infarction at the time of hospital discharge, and risk factor evaluation and ‎suitable drug therapy is necessary for secondary prevention in Shiraz University ‎hospitals (Iranian Heart Journal 2003; 4 (4):44-48).‎