Rationale and design of a cluster randomized trial of a multifaceted intervention in people with hypertension: The Heart Outcomes Prevention and Evaluation 4 (HOPE-4) Study.

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death throughout the world, with the majority of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Despite clear evidence for the benefits of blood pressure reduction and availability of safe and low-cost medications, most individuals are either unaware of their condition or not adequately treated.

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate whether a community-based, multifaceted intervention package primarily provided by nonphysician health workers can improve long-term cardiovascular risk in people with hypertension by addressing identified barriers at the patient, health care provider, and health system levels.

Primary and rescue percutaneous coronary intervention with paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation in ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

We conducted a retrospective comparison of paclitaxel-eluting stents (PESs, n = 60) versus bare metal stents (BMSs, n = 137) in consecutive patients who underwent primary or rescue percutaneous coronary intervention over 1 year. The PES cohort had no in-stent thromboses and had a 65% (p = 0.02) decrease in the combined end point of death, recurrent myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization at 1 year compared with the BMS group.