In our country, cardiovascular diseases are still the main cause of death and are responsible for 44% of all deaths. Numbers that could be significantly reduced, as the recent guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology recall, if prevention strategies were increasingly implemented, especially for those patients identified as being at high cardiovascular risk.
In this article
The importance of secondary prevention
“The reduction of LDL cholesterolthe “bad” one, remains one of the most effective tools for reducing cardiovascular and total risk and mortality, as well as for obtaining less progression or even regression of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary arteries» he explains Joseph Musumeci, Director of Cardiology of the Mauriziano Hospital in Turin. «In the presence of previous cardiac events such as heart attack, stroke, revascularization operations, the secondary prevention plays a key role in helping to lower the risk of new cardiovascular events.
New cholesterol-lowering drugs available in hospital
Today the standard therapies are joined by the new monoclonal antibodies directed against the the protein PCSK9, which allow to further reduce the risk, consequently allowing better clinical results. And to control LDL cholesterol as much as possible, the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) has decided to lower LDL cholesterol threshold levels by 100 to 70 mg/dL for the use of PCSK9 inhibitors in secondary prevention. PCSK9 inhibitors are reimbursed by the National Health Service, but AIFA, the Italian Medicines Agency, has bound their prescription to the compilation of Monitoring Registers and limited to a small number of prescribing centreswith considerable inconvenience for cardiologists and patients.
“Today patients have to go to hospitals to periodically renew the monitoring records, which are now outdated because the drug is used by thousands of patients and are practically free of side effects. In addition PCSK9 inhibitors are distributed only in hospital pharmacieswhile to facilitate accessibility to these drugs, they should also be made available in local pharmacies, those closest to the patients’ homes» comments Musumeci.