secondary prevention

Secondary prevention is everything done to stop a second event in someone who has already had heart trouble — a heart attack, stroke, stent or bypass, or established artery disease. Here the diagnosis is no longer in doubt; the goal is to keep proven disease from striking again.

Because these people are at clearly elevated risk, the case for intensive treatment is much stronger than in primary prevention. Standard pillars typically include a statin (often at high intensity), blood-pressure control, antiplatelet medication such as aspirin, smoking cessation, cardiac rehabilitation and disease-specific drugs — for example beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors after a heart attack or with weakened heart muscle.

The same treatments tend to deliver larger absolute benefit here than in healthy people, precisely because the baseline danger is higher, so fewer people need treating to prevent one event. The challenge is long-term adherence: the protection only lasts while the measures continue, which is why follow-up and support matter as much as the initial prescription.