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Health &
Fitness
FEBRUARY 17, 2000 |
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Docs Overlook Cholesterol
Drugs
Despite
evidence that cholesterol-cutting drugs reduce the risk of
heart attacks, many doctors still don't prescribe them, says a
new study. The study, in the Feb. 14 Archives of Internal
Medicine, focuses on doctors and their patients at major
teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada.
The
study looked at use of cholesterol medications in 825 men and
women with coronary artery disease at 16 academic medical
centers. About half had dangerously high levels of LDL, or
"bad" cholesterol.
Only 54 percent of the men and 35
percent of the women were on cholesterol medication in 1997,
the researchers found. That compared with 42 percent of men
and 38 percent of women in 1994.
Dr Michael Miller,
director of preventive cardiology at the University of
Maryland Medical Center, says treatment rates for patients
with a history of heart disease are far too low. But he adds
the lack of adequate treatment in women is "particularly
worrisome."
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