Combination 'polypill' lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events, study finds

Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart in New York City and general director of the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research, looked at 2,499 patients in seven European countries who had a history of type 1 myocardial infarction in the past. Six months and were either over 75 years of age or at least 65 years of age with at least one risk factor, such as diabetes or mild or moderate renal dysfunction.

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Half of the patients were given the polypill that included aspirin, ramipril and atorvastatin, while the others received the usual standard of care. Patients were followed for an average of three years.

The researchers found 48 cardiovascular deaths in the polypill group and 71 in the usual care group, meaning that patients taking the polypill had a relative risk reduction of 33% for cardiovascular death. The polypill was also favorable in other measures studied in the trial, such as stroke or myocardial infarction.

The polypill and trial comes after 15 years of work, Fuster said. He and his colleagues decided that one of the main problems in medicine is the lack of adherence to the medications they are taking, especially in the cardiovascular area and especially in heart attack patients.

The American Heart Association lists medications to be taken as one of the first things people can do to prevent a second heart attack after having one.

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“It looks like we have a tremendous type of device, a simple polypill, which is actually much better,” Fuster said. “Perhaps most of this is due to better adherence, because it is a simple drug, with great results and the effect is as good or even better than that of aspirin in the past.”

He said it was noteworthy that the two curves — those who took a polypill and those who received standard care — diverged from the beginning and diverged as the years passed, meaning that it felt like the study went on for a long time “and even more striking” results.

Fuster said the polypill is something that could have a “very significant” impact on the general population.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone in the US has a heart attack every 40 seconds. There are approximately 805,000 heart attacks in the country each year – 200,000 of them in people who have already had a heart attack.

The research has some limitations, including that the trial was not done indiscriminately and that all patients were enrolled prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)