Guideline-adherent therapy in patients with cardiovascular diseases in Taiwan

Background/Purpose Aggressive and persistent control of risk factors is recommended for prevention of secondary comorbidities in patients with cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to evaluate guideline recommendations for achieving targets for lipid and blood pressure (BP) control in patients with cardiovascular diseases in Taiwan. Methods This multicenter cohort study was conducted in 14 hospitals in Taiwan. A total of 3316 outpatients who had established cerebrovascular disease (CVD), coronary artery disease (CAD), or both were recruited. Risk factors for comorbid conditions such as high BP, sugar, hemoglobin A 1C , abnormal lipids, lipoproteins, and medication use were compared between patients with CVD, CAD, or both. Results Of all patients, 503 (15.2%) had CVD only, 2568 (77.4%) had CAD only, and 245 (7.4%) had both CVD and CAD. Compared with patients who had only CAD, those with CVD were older, had higher frequency of hypertension, and lower frequency of diabetes mellitus. Patients with CAD were more likely to receive lipid-lowering and antihypertensive drugs than those with CVD ( p p p Conclusion The guideline-recommended targets for lipids and BP in patients with CAD and CVD were still suboptimal in Taiwan. Greater efforts are required to achieve the targets, particularly in patients with CVD and in women.