Fed: Heart failure patients not given life-saving drugs: Study

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2006
Fed: Heart failure patients not given life-saving drugs: Study

By Tamara McLean, National Medical Writer

SYDNEY, Aug 20 AAP - Many heart attack victims who suffer heart failure are not being
prescribed vital life-saving drugs because of reluctance by doctors, a study has found.

Heart failure is a common and potentially lethal complication of myocardial infarction,
otherwise known as a heart attack.

People who have both are up to five times more likely to die.

And while cardiovascular drugs have been proven to reduce death and disease, a study
published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia shows hospitals often fail to prescribe
them.

"Patients with heart failure receive fewer life-saving drug therapies compared with
those who do not have heart failure," the Monash University researchers wrote.

"These deficiencies in prescribing may lead to substantial increases in (cardiovascular)
events in these patients."

The team collected data from 20 Australian hospitals on 479 people hospitalised after
a heart attack.

Of these, 116 had had heart failure during their stay, with the victims most likely
to be women in their late 60s.

Study co-author Professor Henry Krum, head of the university's NHMRC Centre for Clinical
Research Excellence in Therapeutics, said these patients were significantly less likely
to be given medication than those without heart failure.

He believed doctors might be reluctant to prescribe these drugs - in particular the
key medications beta blockers and ace inhibitors - because the patients were in an unstable
condition.

But Prof Krum, who has served on advisory boards for several pharmaceutical companies,
said the use of heart failure therapies should be encouraged.

Recent studies had proven their success, he said, but hospitals were potentially under-prescribing.

"Given the absolute benefit of drug therapy in patients with heart failure after (myocardial
infarction), our findings suggests the potential for sub-optimal prescribing (exists)
in Australian teaching hospital practice," the authors wrote.

AAP tam/jt/sd

KEYWORD: HEART

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