Patients with multivessel coronary disease treated with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) have less angina than those treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI); however, there is uncertainty as to the mechanism of greater angina relief with CABG and whether more frequent repeat reva...
Medication adherence and treatment intensification have been advocated as performance measures to assess the quality of care provided. Whereas previous studies have shown that adherence and treatment intensification (TI) of antihypertensive medications is associated with blood pressure (BP) contr...
Although it is recommended that all patients with heart failure (HF) have advance directives (AD) in place before the end of life is imminent, the use of AD in HF has not been well studied.Methods and Results-We enrolled consecutive Olmsted County residents presenting with HF from October 2007 th...
Measurement of hospital quality has traditionally focused on processes of care and postprocedure outcomes. Appropriateness measures for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) assess quality as it relates to patient selection and the decision to perform PCI. The association between patient selec...
Mitral valve surgery in older adults carries with it substantial morbidity and mortality risks, yet there are a paucity of national surveillance data. Therefore, we sought to determine trends in hospitalization rate, readmission, and mortality among Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patients undergo...
The intensive practice style of hospitals with high procedure rates may result in higher costs of care for medically managed patients. We sought to determine how costs for patients with heart failure (HF) not receiving procedures compare between hospital groups defined by their overall use of pro...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the added predictive ability of the CHA2DS2VASc prediction rule for stroke and death in a nonanticoagulated population of patients with atrial fibrillation.Methods and Results-We included 1603 nonanticoagulated patients with incident atrial fibrillation...
Clear and consistent definitions of hypertension and hypertension control are crucial to guide diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance. A variety of surveillance definitions are in frequent use, resulting in variation of reported hypertension prevalence and control, even when based on the same dat...
Hypertension control is an important and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The overall rate of hypertension control among patients followed in cardiology clinics, as well as clinician variability in control rates, is unknown.Methods and Results-We conducted a retrospective cohort...
The inverse, dose-dependent association between cardiorespiratory fitness and mortality is well-established; however, the pattern of the association between low fitness and mortality across short- (0 to 10 years), intermediate- (10 to 20 years), and long-term (>20 years) follow-up has not been...
Previous studies have identified hospitals with poor performance on cardiac process measures. How these hospitals fare in other domains, such as patient satisfaction, remains unknown.Methods and Results-We used Hospital Compare data to identify hospitals reporting acute myocardial infarction (AMI...
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) shock is a critical event to patients associated with well-being after implantation, although other factors may play an equally important role. We compared the association of shock and the patient's preimplantation personality with health status, using...
In cross-sectional and some cohort studies with shorter follow-up, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) has been associated with longer life. We sought to examine the relationship between HDL-C and death before age 90 in the Physicians' Health Study (PHS).Methods and Results-Of PHS enroll...
Medicare Part D improved access to cardiovascular medications. Increased cardiovascular drug use and resulting health improvements could be derailed when beneficiaries enter the coverage gap and must pay 100% of drug costs. The coverage gap remains the subject of Congressional debate; evidence re...
Little research has been conducted on the predictors of self-report or patient awareness of heart failure (HF) in a population-based survey. The objective of this study was to (1) test the agreement between Medicare administrative and Health and Retirement Study (HRS) survey data and determine pr...
