The Ten-Year History of the Asklepios Study: An Interview with Professor Ernst R. Rietzschel, Primary Investigator and Leader of the Asklepios Study.

The Asklepios study started 10 years ago when 2,500 subjects were screened between 2002 and 2004. And all of the 90+ publications we have for the moment are from those cross-sectional data. This is called round 1. Since 2011, in round 2, all of those patients have started to come back for a 10-year follow-up. At this moment, approximately 1,750 of those patients have been seen. The patients were followed by general practitioners (GP), and the GP again provided the information about what has happened with the medical status in the past 10 years including drug therapy: not only the drugs that they are taking at the moment were evaluated, but, because patients often use many drugs, the chronicles of drugs for major risk factors, for hypertension, lipids, contraceptives and more. Then, patients come to the study center where the same cluster of examinations are undertaken by one single doctor, Prof. Ernst R. Rietzschel and one study nurse, just like 10 years ago. Again, using a single observer at the two time frames has kept the methodology very strict.