After heart attacks, most don’t get enough statins

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - In the U.S., less than a third of older heart “event” patients being discharged from the hospital get the recommended high-intensity statins, according to a new study that looked at prescriptions filled. National guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association say the majority of patients should be on a high-dose statin following a serious heart disease-related event like heart attack or bypass surgery. “It appears that there’s tremendous reticence in prescription of statin therapy,” said lead author Dr. Robert S. Rosenson of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “This is very disappointing.” The authors studied a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 to 74 who filled a statin prescription after having a heart attack or bypass surgery between 2007 and 2009.



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