Abstract 12872: Adherence to Guidelines for Heart Rate in Stable Ischemic Heart Disease in the Primary Care Setting

Abstract

Per 2012 ACC/AHA Guidelines, patients with stable ischemic heart disease (IHD) should be treated with beta-blockers (BB) to target a resting heart rate (HR) of 55-60 bpm due to associations of higher HR with all-cause mortality. We sought to determine adherence to this in the resident primary care (PC) clinic at our institution. Two hundred twenty-nine patients with a medication list in the electronic medical record (EMR) that includes metoprolol succinate or tartrate or carvedilol who were seen in PC clinic in January 2020 were identified. Of these, 100 had a diagnosis of IHD, and their EMR were reviewed for vital signs; medication changes; and contraindications (CI) to BB titration such as hypotension, bradycardia, and max dosing; during their PC and cardiology visits. We found that 10% (10 of 100) had HR within goal during their PC visit, whereas 6 and 84 had HR below and above goal, respectively. Of the 90 whose HR was not at goal, 24 had some perceivable CI to BB titration. Of those without CI to titration, 9% (6 of 66) had their BB increased, 4.5% (3 of 66) had their BB switched to a different medication, and 85% (56 of 66) did not have their BB changed. Of those whose BB was unchanged, 79% (44 of 56) had no other antihypertensive changed. Moreover, 88% (74 of 84) of those with HR above goal had a HR also above goal at their last two PC visits. Sixty-eight of the 100 patients with IHD were also managed by cardiology, and in contrast, 18% (8 of 45) of those with HR not at goal and without CI to titration had their BB dose adjusted at their last cardiology visit. A chi-square test was performed to examine the relation between BB titration and clinic setting with no statistical significance, X 2 (1, N = 106) = 1.18, p = 0.28. In sum, adherence to guidelines for HR in stable IHD were poor and not significantly different in the PC and cardiology settings. Lack of provider initiative, perhaps due to trainee unfamiliarity with guidelines, may be one of many factors and warrants more investigation to improve quality of care.