Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Patients enrolled in coronary intervention trials are not representative of patients in clinical practice.

Patients enrolled in coronary intervention trials are not
representative of patients in clinical practice.
Results from the Euro Heart Survey on Coronary Revascularization.

Conclusion: Many patients in clinical practice were not represented in RCTs. Moreover, only
36% of these patients were considered eligible for participating in a trial comparing PCI with
CABG. We demonstrated that RCTs included younger patients with a better cardiovascular
risk profile as compared to patients in every day clinical practice. This study highlights the
disparity between patients in clinical practice and patients in whom the studies that provide
the evidence for treatment guidelines are performed.
If this is true  of  every RCT in medicine and  surgery how  much  of the  evidence  based  study results can we apply in day to day practice?

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