Patterns of pharmacotherapy in patients hospitalised for congestive heart failure.

BACKGROUND

In the 1990s, a number of cardiovascular drugs were evaluated in randomised clinical trials. Treatment guidelines for heart failure were modified to include these evidence-based treatments.

AIM

To evaluate the impact of new medical treatments for heart failure between 1990 and 1998.

METHODS AND RESULTS

A retrospective cohort study of 2764 patients with a first hospital admission for heart failure between 1990 and 1998. The percentage of patients treated with different cardiovascular drugs after hospitalisation was calculated and compared over time. Use of loop diuretics remained steady approximately 80%, digoxin decreased from 57.6 to 42.7%, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors showed a slight increase from 49.8 to 54.8%, beta-blockers almost tripled from 11.3 to 28.7%, low dose prophylactic acetylsalicylic acid quadrupled from 9.9 to 39.9%. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates showed highest continuation rates of drug treatment for antithrombotics and diuretics, intermediate for digoxin and ACE inhibitors and low for beta-blockers. More than a quarter of the users discontinued beta-blockers in the first year after hospitalisation.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed an increase in the prescribing of several important drug classes, reflecting changes in treatment guidelines during the study period. However, our findings show that not all patients were receiving optimal treatment. More research into the reasons for this is warranted.