[Prognosis at six months for primary care patients: prognostics factors analysis]

AIM OF THE SURVEY: The aim of the PREVENIR III study was to assess, in secondary prevention, the risk of subsequent coronary and cerebrovascular events at six months in a population of patients in private practice.

This was a prospective observational survey (6-month follow-up), including patients diagnosed with previous myocardial infarction, unstable angina or ischemic stroke, carried out by French general practitioners and cardiologists in private practice.

8288 patients were selected by 3746 physicians (2961 general practitioners and 785 cardiologists) representative of French metropolitan physicians in private practice. In this analysis the medical records of 6859 coronary patients were analyzed. After a 6-month follow-up, 84 patients had been hospitalized for a subsequent coronary or cerebrovascular event (1.2%) i.e. cumulative incidence 3.1 event per 100 person-years (95% CI 2.4-3.8). In the coronary population 77.4% of the subsequent vascular events were coronary events and 22.6% were cerebrovascular events. The event rate of coronary events was 0.9% and the cumulative incidence 2.3 event per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.8-2.8), the risk of secondary ischemic stroke was 0.3% and the cumulative incidence 0.7 event per 100 person-years (95% CI 0.4-1.0), and the all-cause mortality rate was 1.0% and the cumulative incidence 2.5 event per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.9-3.1). 61.0% of total death was cardiovascular deaths. Multivariate analysis showed that older age, recent index event, three vessel disease were more likely to undergo recurrent events.

Our survey enabled a better understanding of the prognosis at six months for a large sample of coronary patients recruited in private practice medicine. For coronary patients treated in private practice the risk of subsequent events and total mortality is far from insignificant.