New Medications after a Heart Attack in Lexington
Baptist Health Lexington: New Medications after a Heart Attack
Dr. Robert Sawyer, MD discusses advances in medication for patients who’ve suffered a heart attack. Learn more about post heart attack medication with this video from Baptist Health Lexington.
New Medications after a Heart Attack in Lexington HealthTalks Transcript
Robert Sawyer, MD, Cardiology:
After a patient has a heart attack, it’s really important — probably the most important thing — that the patient is able to take the medications that we prescribe because our No. 1 goal after a heart attack is to prevent the next heart attack.
We are very excited about three groups of medications because they affect most every patient in our practice. The first is a group of medications used to treat high cholesterol. It’s so important for patients to be able to reduce their cholesterol levels to help prevent strokes and heart attacks. An example of that is Repatha® and Praluent®. They’ve been shown to be very effective, reducing cholesterol levels over 50 percent, and are very well tolerated and probably better tolerated than the statin class of medications.
Another group of medications is for diabetics, and the specific medication is called Jardiance®. It’s also been shown not only to reduce the levels of blood sugar and even the weight of some patients and blood pressure, but also to reduce the chance of a heart attack.
The third is a medication called Entresto®, and we’re very excited about it for our heart failure patients or our patient that has a weakened heart muscle. It’s shown really good evidence to prevent even death from a cardiac cause or hospitalization for heart failure in a large group of patients. We’re very excited about these new medications, and we often try these with our patients and see really good results.
