Statin Therapy

New data from CV prevention and treatment trials are among the late-breaking clinical trials selected for presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions from Nov. 16 to 18 in Philadelphia.

Many of the top stories in cardiology last week were from Healio’s live coverage of the Heart Failure Society of America’s Scientific Meeting. They included an interview with retired basketball star Shaq, who discusses how a new campaign intends to raise awareness of heart failure in blacks.

PARIS — Patients with peripheral artery disease who maintained use of high-intensity statin therapy had significantly lower mortality than those who reduced the intensity of statin treatment or stopped taking statins, researchers reported.

PARIS — Inclisiran, an investigational cholesterol-lowering therapy in the small-interfering RNA class, achieved durable and potential LDL reduction with twice-yearly injections, according to new data from the ORION-11 study.

PARIS — In the first randomized trial designed to assess a PCSK9 inhibitor in patients with high-risk ACS, the addition of evolocumab to statin therapy was well tolerated and substantially reduced LDL levels, with a majority of patients within currently recommended target levels following treatment.

Lifetime statin treatment in a hypothetical cohort of patients with borderline atherosclerotic CVD risk and LDL levels between 160 mg/dL and 189 mg/dL was determined to be cost saving, according to a study published in JAMA Cardiology.

Patient-education initiatives appear to be slightly better than interventions focusing only on physician education for increasing statin prescription rates, but the initiatives appear to be best when they provide personalized information, according to a systematic review published in JAMA Cardiology.

Among a cohort of more than a quarter million patients with atherosclerotic CVD in Canada, only about two-thirds were prescribed lipid-lowering therapy and of those, more than a third did not reach recommended LDL cholesterol levels, according to findings recently published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Among patients with peripheral artery disease who underwent a surgical or endovascular intervention, statin use after the procedure was associated with better odds of survival and limb salvage, researchers reported.

Patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who receive care by a cardiologist had higher rates of guideline-based statin use and adherence in an outpatient setting, according to data published in the American Journal of Cardiology.