Health
Medication comparable to surgery for elderly chest pain patients
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 20, 2004
Patients older than age 75 with chronic angina do just as well with invasive treatment as with medication alone, says a study published online last month in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn.
Researchers at University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, studied 300 random patients who received either an optimal medication regimen including aspirin, statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or a surgical procedure such as coronary artery bypass graft or percutaneous coronary intervention.
Survival rates were similar after five years, although those on medications alone required higher doses throughout the study. This group also had more nonfatal events, such as recurrent hospitalizations, and 43% ended up having at least one surgical procedure before the end of the study.
Authors of the paper suggest that both treatment strategies can be appropriate options for providing care to this population.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/09/20/hlbf0920.htm.
