Adherence to guideline-recommended care following acute myocardial infarction: impact on clinical outcomes at 90 days and 1 year

Abstract Background Guideline-recommended care is effective for secondary prevention following acute myocardial infarction (AMI); however, most pharmacotherapies take time to become efficacious and not all patients comply with treatment. It is well established that the risk of recurrent cardiovascular (CV) events is high following an AMI; however, the clinical burden of recurrent CV events among guideline-treated patients, specifically in the 90-day period post-AMI, has been relatively unexplored. Purpose To evaluate adherence to guideline-recommended care and determine how it impacts clinical outcomes at 90 days and 1 year post-discharge in a U.S. population. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted using the IBM Health Marketscan Commercial Claims and Encounters database (July 1, 2013–June 1, 2016). In U.S. individuals with a primary diagnosis of AMI, adherence to evidence-based care was assessed in terms of claims for guideline-recommended interventions: completed physician follow-up visit within 30 days of discharge, participation in cardiac rehabilitation, and adherent (PDC ≥0.8) to beta-blocker, antiplatelet, statin, and ACE inhibitor/ARB drug classes in the year following discharge. Rates of rehospitalisation (all-cause and cardiac) and recurrent AMI events within 90 days and 1 year post-AMI were evaluated. Results Of the 21,977 patients included in the analysis, the majority (80.9%) visited a physician within 30 days of discharge, but few (15.4%) entered cardiac rehabilitation or were adherent to all guideline-recommended drug classes (17.1%). Even in patients fully compliant with guideline-recommended care (3.1% of the total population), event rates were high in the first year post-MI (recurrent AMI: 1.6%; cardiac rehospitalisation: 8.9%; all-cause hospitalisation 13.3%) with a large proportion of the events occurring in the first 90 days: 75%, 58.4%, and 51.1% respectively. Adherence to all drug classes significantly reduced the risk of all-cause and cardiac rehospitalisation but did not reduce the risk of recurrent AMI events (OR=1.03 [95% CI 0.73–1.46] at 90 days and OR=0.80 [95% CI 0.60–1.07] at 1 year) when compared to patients not receiving guideline-recommended pharmacotherapy. Conclusions Even among patients receiving guideline-recommended treatment following discharge, the risk of recurrent events remained high at both 90 days and 1 year in patients following an AMI. Novel approaches to reducing the risk of early recurrent AMI, in particular, are needed. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: Private company. Main funding source(s): CSL Behring