Irish GPs best at managing heart risks

IRISH GPs are best at managing their patients’ heart attack risk with anti- cholesterol drugs, new European research shows.

Ireland’s 68% success rate in achieving safe cholesterol targets was the highest in the study and surpassed the average European rate of 55%.

But the study of eight countries and more than 15,000 patients, including 692 from Ireland, found that almost a third of Irish patients were failing to bring their cholesterol under control with drugs.

The study, the biggest of its kind, was designed to see if modern lipid-lowering drugs, using statins or lowering agents, were helping patients control their cholesterol.

The reults of the study, sponsored by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, was presented at the end of the 10th Annual European Congress of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomic and Outcomes Research in Dublin yesterday.

It found that patients who returned to their GP regularly did best, as did those who only forgot to take their medicine once in two to four weeks, as opposed to once a week.

The study showed that almost 38% of European doctors reviewed their patients’ cholesterol levels once a year, 40% did so every six months and 18% every three months.

National study coordinator, Prof John Feely of St James’s Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, said when cholesterol levels were assessed every three months there was an increased probability of reaching the target.

Prof Feely also said more powerful statins were providing starting doses needed to help achieve targets.

Patients with heart disease and diabetes are required to lower cholesterol below the national target.

More than half of the study’s patient population were men and the average age was 63. All had an increased risk of heart attack, with 23% suffering from diabetes, 62% from high blood pressure and 29% with a family history of cardiovascular disease.

While 68% of Irish patients achieved the national target, only 48% of at-risk patients were hitting the new, lower target, though this was still higher than the 27% average.

Some 93% of patients were on statins and 6% on fibrates, another lipid-lowering therapy.