HealthStudy Updates: A new study reveals, older heart disease patients who took a combination "polypill" consisting of three distinct drugs had a decreased risk of having a serious cardiovascular event.

The research, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that the "polypill" successfully reduces cardiovascular mortality in patients who had previously experienced a heart attack by 33%.
According to researcher Jose Maria Castellano from Fundacion de Investigacion HM Hospitales, "The polypill, being a very simple strategy that combines three essential treatments for this type of patient, has proven it's worth because the improved adherence means that these patients are receiving better treatment and therefore have a lower risk of recurrent cardiovascular events."

The team examined 2,499 patients in seven European countries who had experienced a type 1 myocardial infarction within the previous six months, were at least 65 years old and had at least one risk factor, such as diabetes or mild to moderate kidney dysfunction. The study was presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Spain.
The participants' average age was 76, and 31% of them were female. 779.9% of the participants in the study had hypertension, 57.3 % had diabetes, and 51.3% had smoked cigarettes in the past.

Four major cardiovascular events were examined by researchers: mortality from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, and the requirement for emergency coronary revascularization (the restoration of blood flow through a blocked coronary artery).

Patients taking the CNIC polypills had a 24% lower risk of these four events than patients on the three individual drugs, according to the study, which tracked patients for an average of three years. The findings showed that  there was a relative 33% reduction from the 71 patients in the group receiving standard care to the 48 patients in the polypill group.

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