[Adherence to appointments and medication treatment of patients from randomized clinical trials of the industry].

Historical cohort study that assessed the adherence rate of patients of randomized clinical trials (RCT) of pharmaceutical industry in cardiology to appointments and follow-up medical treatment. This study was conducted at the cardiology research unit in a public university hospital in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. High adherence was regarded as > or = 80%. Seven RCT (120 medical records) were revised. We discovered that 117 (97%) of patients had adherence to follow-up visits to > or = 80%; 83.3% of patients had rates of > or = 80% adherence to medication in the study; the median number of tablets ingested, among patients with good adherence was 175 (72-500), and among patients with lower adherence was 500 (500-962). These results indicate that patients in studies with longer follow up and greater number of oral medication present loss in adherence