The study is of significance to patients in all countries, including developing countries where access to high-tech treatments for cardiovascular problems may be limited.

The CREATE randomized trial was initiated and coordinated in Canada and enrolled more than 15,500 people in China, India and Pakistan. Heart attack patients were given Reviparin, a low molecular weight heparin, or a placebo, twice daily for seven days.

The four-year study showed that the risk of deaths, heart attacks and strokes were reduced by about one-sixth. This means that treating 1,000 patients for a week would prevent about 15 to 20 individuals from dying or suffering a new heart attack. The study also showed that the benefits were greater, the earlier the treatment was used after the onset of symptoms. In those who were treated within two hours of symptom onset, the death rate was lowered by about 30 per cent.

The study was presented today at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association conference in New Orleans by co-investigators Dr. Salim Yusuf and Dr. Shamir Mehta of the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Dr. Yusuf is a professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, director of the Population Health Research Institute and holds an endowed chair of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Dr. Mehta is an associate professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, member of the Population Health Research Institute and a clinician scientist with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

"Reviparin is a simple and relatively inexpensive anti-thrombotic therapy, which can be used in both developed and d
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8-Nov-2004