What Hath COURAGE Wrought? No Change in Practice

In the landmark COURAGE study published in 2007, patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) who received optimal medical therapy (OMT) had similar outcomes to those treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; JW Cardiol Mar 26 2007). To find out whether the publication of the COURAGE results increased the use of OMT before PCI in patients with stable CAD, investigators studied data from the CathPCI Registry of the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, sponsored by the American College of Cardiology and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

The researchers assessed medication use in PCI recipients with stable CAD during the 19 months before (173,416 patients) and 24 months after (293,795 patients) th…