Effects of Adding Ezetimibe to Statin Therapy for Patients with Diabetes

Since its FDA approval in 2002, ezetimibe has become the main add-on agent to statin therapy for reducing elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. Research into whether adding ezetimibe to statin therapy positively affects subclinical atherosclerosis is limited, however. So far, the only data on this question was from the Effect of Combination Ezetimibe and High-Dose Simvastatin Versus Simvastatin Alone on the Atherosclerotic Process in Subjects With Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (ENHANCE) trial. In this study, researchers found that adding ezetimibe to simvastatin boosted reductions in LDL-C by a further 17%, but over two years, the average increase in common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) didn’t differ significantly from that in the statin-only group.