(HealthCentersOnline) - Patients who are taking statins improperly may be putting themselves at risk for avoidable heart attacks, according to the results of a new study.
Statins are a type of medication used in the treatment of high blood lipids levels, such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Statins block the production of specific enzymes used by the body to make cholesterol.
A heart attack is scarring, or death, of the heart muscle due to lack of oxygen. A heart attack often occurs when oxygen-rich blood is blocked by a blood clot in a coronary artery, usually due to plaque-related narrowing of the artery, known as atherosclerosis. A heart attack is a very serious condition that can be fatal.
Researchers from the Netherlands have learned that thousands of people all over the world may be experiencing preventable heart attacks because they are not taking their statin treatments properly.
For the study, the researchers looked at the prescription records of nearly 60,000 patients in the Netherlands over a period of 14 years. The researchers looked at patients beginning to take statin in January 1991, and followed the patients until their first hospital admission for heart attack, death or at the end of the study in December 2004.
The study found that more than half of the patients in the study (31,557) had taken themselves off statins by the end of the second year. The researchers estimate that discontinuing statin treatment early results in 300 to 400 avoidable heart attacks each year in the Netherlands, and 5,000 to 7,000 avoidable heart attacks in the United States.
"Unfortunately, statins are not being used optimally, so thousands of people are having unnecessary heart attacks. Getting users to stay on statins and to use them persistently saves lives, and doctors must get over to patients the message that complying with treatment is essential," explained lead researcher Dr. Penning-van Beest, a research associate at the PHARMO Institute, in a recent press release.
Health
The results of the report were published online on November 7 in the European Heart Journal.
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