The Avoid Stroke as Soon as Possible (ASAP) general practice stroke audit.

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of stroke risk factors in a general practice population and to identify pharmacotherapies currently used in management of stroke risk factors. DESIGN Multicentre, observational study by 321 randomly selected general practitioners who each collected data on 50 consecutive patients attending their surgery. PATIENTS AND SETTING 16 148 patients aged 30 years or older attending general practices across Australia during 2000. OUTCOME MEASURES Prevalence of hypertension, current smoking, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, atrial fibrillation, recent history of stroke or TIA; extent of pharmacotherapy use in risk-factor management. RESULTS 70% of patients had one or more risk factors and 34% had two or more. Hypertension was the risk factor with greatest prevalence (44%), followed by hypercholesterolaemia (43%) and current smoking (17%). The prevalence of risk factors generally increased with age, except for current smoking, where a decrease with age was seen. The most common pharmacotherapies were cardiovascular agents, followed by antiplatelet agents. Two-thirds of patients with hypertension were taking cardiovascular drugs, most commonly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS Stroke risk factors are highly prevalent in general practice patients and GPs are ideally placed for opportunistic case-finding. There is considerable scope for improving management of stroke risk factors. The Avoid Stroke as Soon as Possible (ASAP) general practice stroke audit provides a baseline against which progress in risk-factor management can be measured.