[Medical treatment after myocardial infarct: reflex prescription or thoughtful prescription]

There have been many therapeutic trials to determine the efficacy of given drugs prescribed after myocardial infarction. This may be explained by the very number of families of drugs which may intervene during the evolution of coronary artery disease. A common mistake is to think that the results of therapeutic trials can be automatically applied in clinical practice. In order for the demonstrated effect of a product to lead to its automatic prescription, there must be confirmation that the importance of the expected benefits does not depend on the type of infarction. This is probably the case for aspirin and the reduction of cholesterol levels which seem to be effective irrespective of the characteristics of the initial infarction. On the other hand, the efficacy or dangers of anti-ischaemic drugs, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or antiarrhythmics, is very dependent on the impact of the infarct on left ventricular function. The prescription of drugs after myocardial infarction depends on individual parameters which lead to the adaptation of consensus recommendations to each particular case.