The mortality risk of deferring optimal medical therapy in heart failure: a systematic comparison against norms for surgical consent and patient information leaflets

摘要

AimsThe prescription of optimal medical therapy for heart failure is often delayed despite compelling evidence of a reduction in mortality. We calculated the absolute risk resulting from delayed prescription of therapy. For comparison, we established the threshold applied by clinicians when discussing the risk for death associated with an intervention, and the threshold used in official patient information leaflets.