Monday, July 25, 2011

Trends in elective PCI post-COURAGE

It looks like cardiologists are following the evidence according to this new study:

Conclusions—Publication of results from the COURAGE trial was temporally associated with a significant and sustained decline in the use of PCI to treat patients with stable angina. The long-term impact of this change in practice on patient outcomes remains to be determined.

1 comment:

Alert and Oriented said...

Except that PCI volume (and CABG as well) has decreased dramatically for all indications--stable or not. For reasons that are not entirely clear (statins?), every cath lab and surgical program that I have been in contact with (on both coasts) has seen significant decreases in volume which actually predated by a few months the publication of COURAGE. This is happening despite the looming threat of an aging, obese population...