Adherence to cardiovascular (CV) guidelines seems to be associated with an improved outcome (1). Specifically, in the case of statin trials, there is an often-raised claim that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) exclude patients with statin intolerance in the pre-randomization or run-in periods in order to minimize losses from follow-up, a fact that could explain why randomized trials have lower rates of side effects in the active treatment phase than will be observed in the real world (2). In this review paper, Dr Vonbank and co-workers, report that; (i) the majority of RCTs did not have a test dose of a statin in the run-in phase and (ii) a test dose in the run-in phase was not associated with a significantly improved adherence rate within that trial when compared to trials without a test dose.
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.