Almost all learning deteriorates without reinforcement. At regular intervals, the patients' understanding should be reassessed, and key information should be repeated as warranted. Patients should be congratulated for progress even when their ultimate goals are not fully achieved. There is a great deal of information that patients with ischemic heart disease want to and should learn. This information falls into the categories listed in the following section.
Patients vary in the level of detail they want to know about ischemic heart disease.
Because therapy for angina is closely tied to the underlying pathophysiology, an understanding of these derangements and the effects of medications or interventions often helps patients to comply with therapy. It is useful to review the important known risk factors. Some patients may want to know about the potential complications of ischemic heart disease, such as unstable angina, mi, heart failure, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. Most patients are keenly interested in understanding their own risk of complications, especially in the short term. To the extent possible, it is useful to provide numerical estimates for risk of infarction or death from cardiovascular events because many patients assume that their short-term prognosis is worse that it actually is.