CHICAGO – Results of the IMPROVE-IT megatrial not only show that adding ezetimibe to statin therapy lowered the risk of all cardiovascular events in high-risk patients, they also prove the LDL hypothesis, two experts commented at the American Heart Association scientific sessions.
IMPROVE-IT compared simvastatin plus placebo with simvastatin plus ezetimibe in more than 18,000 patients within 10 days of an acute coronary syndrome event. The dual-therapy patients’ LDL cholesterol went down to an average of 54 mg/dL, while the statin/placebo patients’ LDL reached 69 mg/dL.
The patients taking ezetimibe in addition to simvastatin had a 6.4% lower risk of all cardiovascular events, a 14% reduced risk of all heart attacks, and a 21% lower risk of ischemic stroke. There was no difference in mortality between groups.
Dr. Lori Mosca, professor of medicine at Columbia University, New York, and director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and Dr. Prakash Deedwania, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Fresno, told us how these “exciting” results will change practice for treating very high-risk patients.