CORONARY RISK-FACTORS 6 TO 12 MONTHS AFTER CORONARY-ARTERY BYPASS-SURGERY - 1986 COMPARED WITH 1990

A 1986 study found that coronary risk factors were receiving insufficient attention in patients who had recently undergone coronary artery bypass grafting. This issue was readdressed in a like group of 100 patients from the same surgical unit three and a half years later, in 1990, to ascertain whether risk factor management had improved over the period. An increased proportion of patients in 1990 were undergoing active management of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. Only 25% of patients in 1990 manifested hypercholesterolaemia (cholesterol levels greater-than-or-equal-to 6.5 mmol/L) compared with 60% in 1986. Five per cent of patients in 1990 manifested diastolic hypertension (diastolic pressure greater-than-or-equal-to 95 mmHg) compared with 23% in 1986. Such patients appear better managed in 1990 than they were in 1986.