News to help reduce heart attacks.
An inexpensive combination of one drug to lower cholesterol and one to lower blood pressure can reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by as much as 60% — but getting patients to begin the regimen and then to stay on it is an extremely difficult task, Kaiser Permanente researchers reported Thursday. Giving the drugs to nearly 70,000 people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes prevented an estimated 1,271 heart attacks and strokes in one year, Dr. James Dudl of Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute and his colleagues reported in the American Journal of Managed Care. – From LA Times