Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2021; 116(1): 117-118
Rediscovering Brazil: How We Prevent and Treat Cardiovascular Disease
Letícia Rodrigues Costa, Eduardo Vasconcelos Passos, Odilson Marcos Silvestre
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Evaluation of 1-Year Follow-up of Patients Included in the Registry of Clinical Practice in Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk (REACT)".
In Brazil, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent 27% of total deaths. These are mainly due to coronary heart disease (32%), stroke (28%) and heart failure (18%). , Although CVD are the leading cause of death in all five Brazilian regions, the percentage of deaths from CVD is higher in the more developed regions, i.e., South and Southeast.
Preventing cardiovascular disease is preventing deaths from heart attack, stroke and heart failure. In addition to non-pharmacological measures, pharmacological measures are effective and should be applied following the stratification of cardiovascular risk and use of evidence-based drugs. Among subjects with high cardiovascular risk, i.e., those with the greatest chance of cardiovascular events in the next ten years, using pharmacological therapies saves lives. Optimized medical therapy promotes a 36% reduction in mortality, 27% reduction of death/myocardial infarction/stroke and improves the quality of life of patients with heart disease. However, despite the efficacy established and proven in clinical trials, in real life the adherence to therapy is low, even in developed countries, with about 40% of patients receiving optimized therapy after 5 years of diagnosis.
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