Antihypertensive Medication Category Prescriptions and Blood Pressure Control in African Surinamese and Ghanaian Migrants with Hypertension in Amsterdam, The Netherlands: The HELIUS Study.

West African (WA) migrants in Europe have higher hypertension rates than the host populations. For African migrants, guidelines recommend diuretics and/or calcium channel blockers (CCB) for primary cardiovascular disease prevention, but data on antihypertensive medication (AHM) prescription patterns or related hypertension control rates are lacking. We assessed AHM prescription patterns and its relation to hypertension control among hypertensive WA migrants in the Netherlands compared to the host population.

Chest Pain in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Risk Stratification Tools to Rule Out Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Purpose: Chest pain frequently poses a diagnostic challenge for general practitioners (GPs). Utilizing risk stratification tools might help GPs to rule out acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and make appropriate referral decisions. We conducted a systematic review of studies evaluating risk stratification tools for chest pain in primary care settings, both with and without troponin assays.

Adding ethnicity to cardiovascular risk prediction: External validation and model updating of SCORE2 using data from the HELIUS population cohort.

Background: Current prediction models for mainland Europe do not include ethnicity, despite ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. SCORE2 performance was evaluated across the largest ethnic groups in the Netherlands and ethnic backgrounds were added to the model.

Methods: 11,614 participants, aged between 40 and 70 years without CVD, from the population-based multi-ethnic HELIUS study were included.

Screening and detection of atrial fibrillation in primary care: current practice and future perspectives.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia associated with an increased risk of stroke, which can be effectively reduced by prophylaxis initiation and integrated care to reduce cardiovascular risk and AF-related complications. Screening for AF has the potential to improve long-term clinical outcomes through timely AF detection in asymptomatic patients. With the central role of primary care in most European healthcare systems in terms of disease detection, treatment, as well as record keeping, primary care is ideally situated as a setting for AF screening efforts.

Impact of patient selection in clinical trials: application of ROCKET AF and ARISTOTLE criteria in GARFIELD-AF.

Background: The extent to which differences in results from Apixaban for Reduction in Stroke and Other Thromboembolic Events in Atrial Fibrillation (ARISTOTLE) and Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor Xa Inhibition Compared with Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and Embolism Trial (ROCKET) atrial fibrillation (AF)-the landmark trials for the approval of apixaban and rivaroxaban, respectively, for non-valvular AF-were influenced by differences in their protocols is debated. The potential influence of selection criteria on trial results was assessed by emulating these trials in data from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the Field (GARFIELD)-AF registry.

Methods: Vitamin K antagonist (VKA) and non-vitamin K oral antagonist (NOAC) users from GARFIELD-AF were selected according to eligibility for the original ARISTOTLE or ROCKET AF trials.