| Abstrakt: |
Best medical therapy (BMT) for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), carotid artery stenosis (CAS) and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) involving concomitant use of antiplatelets, lipid-lowering agents, and blood pressure control, improves patient survival and prevents clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). We performed a single-center cross-sectional study, over a 4-year period, describing BMT use in Western Australian patients with symptomatic PAD, CAS and AAA in the community. Overall, 45.3% of our cohort (n = 1689) were on appropriate BMT (CAS, 58.1%; PAD, 43.1%; AAA, 41.1%). There was highest uptake of blood pressure control at 93.0% (lipid-lowering agents, 65.3%; antithrombotics 63.5%). PAD was associated with highest uptake of blood pressure control (PAD 93.9%; CAS, 91.4%; AAA, 91.1%, P =.092) whilst CAS had highest uptake of antithrombotics (CAS 76.3%; PAD, 61.0%; AAA 60.4%, P <.001) and lipid-lowering agents (CAS 78.7%; PAD, 63.1%; AAA, 60.4%, P <.001). Our study indicates suboptimal use of BMT in patients with vascular disease in the community. The risk of CVD in CAS is likely misperceived as higher than PAD and AAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
