According to a latest study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 3, ezetimibe enriched statin therapy proved to be very beneficial after conventional treatment of acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
Study co-author, Christopher P. Cannon, MD, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, conducted a randomized trial with 18,144 patients who have been diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome and have been hospitalized within the previous 10 days. All the patients within the sample population either had LDL cholesterol levels of 50 to 100 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 2.6 mmol per liter) or 50 to 125 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 3.2 mmol per liter) depending upon whether they were receiving lipid-lowering therapy or not.
Patients were randomly given simvastatin (40 mg) with ezetimibe (10 mg) or just simvastatin and placebo (simvastatin monotherapy) as the control medication. The patients were followed for a median of 6 years and the primary end-point of the research was a combination of cardiovascular death, unstable angina, myocardial infarction (nonfatal), coronary revascularization and nonfatal stroke.
The results speak for themselves. The median time-weighted average low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level was 53.7 mg/dL (1.4 mmol per liter) for patients treated with the simvastatin-ezetimibe therapy. On the other hand patients from the control group (treated with simvastatin and placebo) had a reading of 69.5 mg/dL (1.8 mmol per liter).
The Kaplan-Meier event rate for the primary cut off point at the 7 year mark was 34.7 in the simvastatin and placebo group and 32.7 % for patients treated with the simvastatin-ezetimibe therapy. (absolute risk difference, 2.0 percentage points; hazard ratio, 0.936; 95 % confidence interval, 0.89 to 0.99; P=0.016).
When ezetimibe is added with the conventional statin therapy, it caused incremental lowering of LDL cholesterol levels and significantly improved cardiovascular outcomes, according to the paper. Furthermore, additional benefits were achieved by lowering LDL cholesterol levels below previous targets.
The rates of pre-specified gallbladder, muscle and hepatic adverse effects and cancer were similar in both the groups.
Merck funded the study, which specializes in manufacturing ezetimibe.
Study co-author, Christopher P. Cannon, MD, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, conducted a randomized trial with 18,144 patients who have been diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome and have been hospitalized within the previous 10 days. All the patients within the sample population either had LDL cholesterol levels of 50 to 100 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 2.6 mmol per liter) or 50 to 125 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 3.2 mmol per liter) depending upon whether they were receiving lipid-lowering therapy or not.
Patients were randomly given simvastatin (40 mg) with ezetimibe (10 mg) or just simvastatin and placebo (simvastatin monotherapy) as the control medication. The patients were followed for a median of 6 years and the primary end-point of the research was a combination of cardiovascular death, unstable angina, myocardial infarction (nonfatal), coronary revascularization and nonfatal stroke.
The results speak for themselves. The median time-weighted average low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level was 53.7 mg/dL (1.4 mmol per liter) for patients treated with the simvastatin-ezetimibe therapy. On the other hand patients from the control group (treated with simvastatin and placebo) had a reading of 69.5 mg/dL (1.8 mmol per liter).
The Kaplan-Meier event rate for the primary cut off point at the 7 year mark was 34.7 in the simvastatin and placebo group and 32.7 % for patients treated with the simvastatin-ezetimibe therapy. (absolute risk difference, 2.0 percentage points; hazard ratio, 0.936; 95 % confidence interval, 0.89 to 0.99; P=0.016).
When ezetimibe is added with the conventional statin therapy, it caused incremental lowering of LDL cholesterol levels and significantly improved cardiovascular outcomes, according to the paper. Furthermore, additional benefits were achieved by lowering LDL cholesterol levels below previous targets.
The rates of pre-specified gallbladder, muscle and hepatic adverse effects and cancer were similar in both the groups.
Merck funded the study, which specializes in manufacturing ezetimibe.
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