Guidelines Don’t Curb Unnecessary Treatment for Heart Attack Patients
Doctors aren’t following national guidelines for treating heart attack survivors, according to a study that found many receive an artery-clearing procedure even though previous research shows it offers no benefit.
The analysis of 28,780 patient visits at 896 hospitals found about 53 percent underwent the procedure to restore blood flow to the heart through a blocked artery that caused a heart attack more than 24 hours earlier. The approach often uses a device known as a stent sold by Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), Medtronic Inc. (MDT) or Abbott Laboratories (ABT) to hold open the artery.
The percentage of patients getting treatment didn’t change after a 2006 trial dubbed OAT found it failed to reduce the risk of subsequent heart attacks, heart failure or death, the researchers said. It didn’t change after guidelines issued the next year by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology said the procedure shouldn’t be performed, according to the report today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The procedure to clear totally blocked arteries that aren’t found immediately after a heart attack “remains commonplace despite little evidence to support its use in stable patients and new clinical practice guidelines recommending against it,” said the researchers led by Marc W. Deyell from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
The findings are worrisome because they suggest patients are getting costly and unnecessary treatment, the researchers said. In addition, the results show the significant time and money that went into the study hasn’t been able to influence medical practice in the U.S., they said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
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