Distribution of therapeutic procedures and choice of drug therapies in patients with angiographically confirmed coronary artery disease

The aims of our study were to assess the distribution of interventional and other therapeutic procedures performed on subjects who had proven CAD by angiography in our clinic; to determine the groups of therapeutic agents prescribed at the time of discharge; and to compare these with the results of EUROASPIRE II, which examined the prophylactic drug therapy upon discharge of CAD patients in 15 European countries. Our patients comprises of 617 subjects (516 male, 101 female; mean age 57.2 +/- 10.8 years) who underwent coronary angiography for the first time in our clinic and who were found to have a 50% lesion in at least one of the coronary arteries. In all patients distribution of risk factors on admission, distribution of therapeutic procedures and the use of drug therapies at the hospital discharge were recorded. We found that, 68% of our cases were considered to be eligible for a percutaneous or surgical intervention, while 27% were assessed not as requiring such an intervention and consequently were discharged being prescribed appropriate medications. For the remaining 5% of the subjects, tests for detection of viable myocardium were advised, before selecting the proper type of management. At discharge, prescription rates for antiplatelets, beta-blockers, nitrates, statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), calcium channel blockers and anticoagulants were detected to be %99, 86%, 86%, 63%, 40%, 16%, and 2% respectively. Compared with the results of EUROASPIRE II study, these data show that, antiplatelet, beta-blocker, ACE-I and lipid-lowering treatments our subjects received upon discharge were higher, whereas anticoagulant treatment was lower than the averages of the fifteen European countries consisting the EUROASPIRE II study.