Secondary treatment improves outcomes

Mortality following acute myocardial infarction in an English health district improved significantly over a five year period, corresponding directly with an increase in secondary treatment of cholesterol levels.

Each year, around 300 000 people in England suffer an acute myocardial infarct and coronary heart disease in general claims over 110 000 lives—figures the United Kingdom government is aiming to reduce with the recent publication (in 2000) of the National Service Framework for coronary heart disease.

In the five year period before that report (and its recommendations for increased secondary treatment) was published, the authors found that mortality at 30 days after myocardial infarct showed an annual reduction of 9%. Almost three quarters of one year survivors had their serum lipids measured in 1995, with the proportion rising year on year to …