|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| No secondary stroke prevention bias against elderly |
|
15 February 2006
US researchers have found that very elderly stroke patients are just as likely to receive optimal secondary preventive medication as their younger counterparts. "Although those aged =80 were significantly less likely to actually receive combination therapy, this disparity was eliminated when pre-specified valid contraindications to treatment were considered," they explain in the journal Neurology.
The team analysed data from the California Acute Stroke Prototype Registry, which details acute stroke admissions for 11 hospitals in five major population regions of California from November 2002 to January 2003 and from November 2003 to January 2004. During these time periods, 260 patients aged 80 years or older and 534 aged less than 80 years were admitted to hospital with acute stroke or transient ischaemic attack.
The investigators report that very elderly patients were less likely to receive antithrombotic and lipid-lowering medications than those under the age of 80 years, but were more likely to receive antihypertensive therapy. However, when valid contraindications to medications were taken into account, antithrombotic and lipid-lowering treatment was found to be prescribed with equal frequency to very elderly and younger patients who did not have contraindications. Antihypertensive medication was prescribed to 77% of very elderly patients without contraindication, which was a significantly greater proportion than the 67% of eligible younger patients who received this treatment.
Dr Bruce Ovbiagele, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and colleagues stress that previous studies did not make this distinction between actual and optimal treatment. There may have been other contraindications to treatment that were not recorded, meaning that optimal treatment may have been given more frequently than reported.
Reference:
Neurology 2006; 66 (3): 313-318.
 Back to selection |
|
 |
|
|
|
