Background: Patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are at very high cardiovascular (CV) risk. Therefore, appropriate management of dyslipidemia with adequate lipid-lowering therapy is crucial for preventing subsequent CV events in these patients.
Aims: Our analysis aimed to assess the treatment of dyslipidemia and attainment of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) treatment goals in patients after AMI who participated in the Managed Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction Survivors (MACAMIS) program.
Methods: This study is a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients with AMI who agreed to participate and completed the 12-month MACAMIS program at one of three tertiary referral cardiovascular centers in Poland between October 2017 and January 2021.
Results: 1499 patients after AMI were enrolled in the study. High-intensity statin therapy was prescribed for 85.5% of analyzed patients on hospital discharge. Combined therapy with high-intensity statin and ezetimibe increased from 2.1% on hospital discharge to 18.2% after 12 months. In the whole study cohort, 20.4% of patients achieved the LDL-C target of < 55 mg/dl ( < 1.4 mmol/l), and 26.9% of patients achieved at least a 50% reduction in LDL-C level one year after AMI.
Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that participation in the managed care program might be associated with improved quality of dyslipidemia management in AMI patients. Nonetheless, only one-fifth of patients who completed the program achieved the treatment goal for LDL-C. This highlights the constant need for optimizing lipid-lowering therapy to meet treatment targets and reduce CV risk in patients after AMI.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk; lipid-lowering therapy; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; myocardial infarction; secondary prevention.