Statin Eligibility Prior to Myocardial InfarCtion

Myocardial Infarction, Statins

The study (Statin Eligibility Prior to myocardial infarction (MI) in Jordanians, StatinEPIC) is 1. Cross sectional 2. Non interventional 3. One encounter per patient. No follow up. It addresses a major issue of primary prevention in Jordanians especially the young population, namely the issue of lipid lowering agents before sustaining an acute MI. A recent study in USA showed that 50% of patients who sustained MI were not eligible to statins had they been evaluated before the heart attack. It is largely unknown if a larger percentage of Middle Eastern patients who sustain a heart attack would be eligible to receive lipid lowering agents. 4. The PI will overlook the whole process. Dr Ahmad Tamari, the assistant to the PI will asses this whole process of data collection, management and manuscript drafting.

Statins, when use as primary cardiovascular prevention strategy, have been shown to lower future acute cardiovascular events, especially myocardial infarction. However the use of statins in this context (i.e., primary prevention) is governed by guidelines that limit the use of statins to four high risk populations: (1) hose with known cardiovascular disease, (2) those with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels 190 mg/dl or above, (3) diabetics with LDL-C levels 70-189 mg/dl, and (4) those with an estimated 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk score of 7.5% or more. Unfortunately, some individuals are still at risk of sustaining MI despite the fact that they do not fit into one of these four high risk groups eligible for statins. StainEPIC will enroll consecutive patients admitted with MI who are not on statins to examine their eligibility for these medications based on the AHA/ACC guidelines.

Jordan