August 31, 2026Journal of the American College of Cardiology
AHA/ACCF Secondary Prevention and Risk Reduction Therapy for Patients With Coronary and Other Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: 2011 Update
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Key expert perspectives
Captured external expert commentary on this paper, strongest first. Original sources are linked where available.
“Unless improvements are made in behavior and medical therapy, the same blood vessel problem that caused [the] first heart attack or stroke can occur again –and may result in death –so long-term changes need to be initiated to get the vascular disease under control.”
“Periodically, it's nice to get these out there to raise awareness that we're not doing as good of a job as we might in terms of implementing the things that we know work, both for patients as well as physicians--emphasis on smoking, exercise, weight control, etc--in addition to the kinds of medications we should be taking. That's important because often patients rely on medications, and physicians don't emphasize lifestyle sufficiently.”
“We feel that that not only brings in more activity but focuses on whether the patients are on the right medicine, if they understand the right diet, and whether they are having trouble with smoking cessation. That continues to be a very important part of care with atherosclerotic vascular disease, especially people who have had events.”
Overview
Clinical guideline updates secondary prevention strategies in atherosclerotic vascular disease, highlighting multimodal risk reduction to prevent recurrent events.
Key Points
- Provide updated clinical recommendations for secondary prevention and comprehensive risk reduction in patients with established coronary and other atherosclerotic vascular diseases.
- Expert consensus and systematic evidence synthesis conducted by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology Foundation.
- Evaluation of clinical trial outcomes across pharmacotherapy, biomarker targets, and lifestyle interventions.
- Establishes targeted recommendations for blood pressure management, aggressive lipid-lowering therapy with statins, and antiplatelet regimens.
- Outlines critical lifestyle interventions, including smoking cessation, weight management, diabetes control, and physical activity, to reduce recurrent cardiovascular morbidity.
Cite This Study
Smith et al. (2011) studied this question.