Aspirin underused as secondary prevention

Current guidelines recommend a secondary prevention therapy for patients with established coronary artery disease, but findings presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session suggest many patients are not being treated accordingly, with a significant disparity along racial and ethnic lines.

Magda Elizabeth Mora Garzon, MD, of the University of Oklahoma, and colleagues analyzed data from 242,840 participants of the Chest Pain-MI registry between 2011 and 2016. The median age of the participants was 68 years, 70% were men, 11% were black and 5% were Hispanic. All had a history of coronary artery disease.

Current guidelines recommend a secondary prevention therapy for patients with established coronary artery disease, but not all patients use aspirin to reach this objective, findings presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session suggest.

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Researchers found that 69.7% of white patients were on aspirin, vs. 65.3% of blacks and 62.8% of Hispanics.

“There are multiple other confounding factors and variables, not just on a patient level but a practice level … that need to be addressed in a study that can finally address compliance issues and disparity issues,” Mora Garzon said.

Click here for more Healio coverage of Mora Garzon’s findings. – by Janel Miller

Reference: Mora Garzon ME, et al. Cardiovascular disease prevention: Insights from large registries. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 16-18, 2019; New Orleans.

Disclosures: Mora Garzon reports no relevant financial disclosures.