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The specificity of prescription patterns in secondary stroke prevention

¹ Rehabilitation Unit "Ancelle della Carità" Hospital, 26100, Cremona Italy and Geriatric Research Group, Brescia, Italy
² "Tor Vergata" University, Rome Italy and Geriatric Research Group, Brescia, Italy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
G Bellelli
MD, Head, Rehabilitation Unit, "Ancelle della Carità" Hospital, 26100, Cremona Italy; giuseppebellelli@libero.it; bellelli-giuseppe@poliambulanza.it

Keywords: secondary stroke prevention

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We would like to comment on the important report by Landi and colleagues about the factors associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving secondary stroke prevention treatment¹ and present our own data. We have demonstrated that in community-dwelling patients with chronic atrial fibrillation, living alone or in rural areas, history of previous falls, and cognitive and functional impairments are independent factors that result in physicians prescribing aspirin instead of anticoagulants, thus disregarding the common guidelines for stroke prevention.^2,3 We have also shown that in some cases it does not mean malpractice.³ In elderly patients, a geriatric assessment including a shrewd evaluation of the psychosocial conditions can guide physicians in the selection of the correct treatment, thus avoiding the risks related to anticoagulants in individuals at high risk of falls or with inability to comply with regular blood monitoring.^2–5

Our data are only partially comparable with those of Landi and colleagues, . . . [Full text of this article]

F Landi³, G Onder³, R Bernabei³

³ Centro Medicina dell’Invecchiamento, Istituto di Medicina Interna e Geriatria, Universita’ Cattolica Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr F Landi
francesco_landi@rm.unicatt.it

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Bellelli, R. Rozzini, and M. Trabucchi Establishing an Optimal Therapeutic Range for Coumarins Arch Intern Med, November 8, 2004; 164(20): 2282 - 2282. [Full Text] [PDF]