Statin News and Research

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Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol. Your body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the walls of your arteries, narrowing or even blocking them.

Neutral atherosclerosis trial highlights effectiveness of optimal medical therapy

Salsalate has no greater effect than placebo on the progression of coronary artery plaque, show the findings of the randomised TINSAL-CVD trial.

3 Jun 2016

Scientists reveal how ER+ breast cancer uses cholesterol-based molecule to evade anti-hormone treatments

New research funded by Breast Cancer Now has identified how the most common breast cancers could be using a cholesterol-based molecule to evade standard anti-hormone treatments, causing patients’ disease to return.

2 Jun 2016

Migraine increases vascular disease risk in women

Women with migraine have a 50% increased risk of major cardiovascular disease, suggests a cohort study of Nurses' Health Study II participants.

1 Jun 2016

Microvascular disease burden tied to CVD outcomes in diabetic patients

The risk of cardiovascular disease events in patients with Type 2 diabetes rises in line with their cumulative burden of microvascular disease, research shows.

25 May 2016

Raised lipoprotein(a) could account for a quarter of FH cases

High levels of lipoprotein(a) could account for a substantial proportion of cases of familial hypercholesterolaemia, a large study shows.

20 May 2016

Model may guide statin treatment in diabetes patients

Researchers have developed a model to predict the benefits of statin treatment in individual patients with Type 2 diabetes, but experts question whether individualised treatment is always the best choice.

17 May 2016

Study identifies sex differences in statin therapy among coronary artery disease patients

Statins are equally effective at decreasing risk of coronary events in men and women, and yet women are less likely to be prescribed these cholesterol-lowering drugs than men.

6 May 2016

Study shows short-term statin treatment does not benefit heart surgery patients

Giving daily doses of statins for a few days before and after heart surgery does not prevent heart muscle damage or the development of atrial fibrillation (AF), according to an international clinical trial led by the University of Oxford and funded by the British Heart Foundation.

5 May 2016

Study confirms under-utilization of medication in patients after bypass surgery

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University discovered that nearly half of coronary artery bypass patients are not taking statins and aspirin together when they are referred for diagnostic cardiac catheterization at least three years after their initial bypass. Their results are currently in press online in the American Journal of Cardiology.

3 May 2016

New research suggests fasting not required before cholesterol, triglyceride measurement

New research from Denmark, Canada and the US involving more than 300,000 individuals suggests that patients do not need to check their cholesterol levels on an empty stomach. So far fasting has been required before cholesterol and triglyceride measurement in all countries except Denmark, where non-fasting blood sampling has been used since 2009.

27 Apr 2016

Cholesterol-lowering drugs may not reduce colorectal cancer risk

Long-term use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins does not appear to decrease a patient's risk of colorectal cancer, suggests a new, large case-control study from Penn Medicine researchers published this week in PLOS Medicine.

27 Apr 2016

New molecule-building method may have great impact on pharmaceutical industry

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised a new molecule-building method that is likely to have a major impact on the pharmaceutical industry and many other chemistry-based enterprises.

22 Apr 2016

Metabolic pathway activates cell signaling protein to promote breast cancer metastasis

A metabolic pathway that is up-regulated in certain breast cancers promotes the disease's progression by activating a cell signaling protein called Arf6, according to a paper published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

7 Apr 2016

Evolocumab could be more effective than ezetimibe in lowering cholesterol in statin-intolerant patients

In the first major trial of its kind, Cleveland Clinic researchers used a blinded rechallenge with atorvastatin or placebo to objectively confirm the presence of muscle-related symptoms in patients with a history of intolerance to multiple statins and found that evolocumab (a PCSK9 inhibitor) was a more effective option to lower cholesterol than ezetimibe in these patients.

4 Apr 2016

Researchers compare lipid-lowering efficacy for two nonstatin therapies in statin-intolerant patients

Steven E. Nissen, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues identified patients with muscle-related adverse effects from statins and compared lipid-lowering efficacy for two nonstatin therapies, ezetimibe and evolocumab. The study was published online by JAMA, and is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo.

4 Apr 2016

Study: Statin drugs can reduce time to clear tuberculosis infection in mice

In a study using mice, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine infectious disease experts have added to evidence that statin drugs — known primarily for their cholesterol-lowering effects — can significantly reduce the time it takes to clear tuberculosis infection.

17 Mar 2016

New RI-MUHC-led study may change the way we think about prescribing statins

Millions of people today take statins to help lower their cholesterol level. Currently statins are prescribed to patients based on their future risk of cardiovascular disease - mainly driven by age - which excludes many individuals who may benefit from them. A new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, with collaborators from the United-States, is changing the way we think about prescribing statins. The research team has developed a new approach to determine which individuals should receive these important medications.

11 Mar 2016

Routine stress adversely affects women’s heart

While the number of men dying from a heart attack has been constantly decreasing during the past twenty years, the fatal risk particularly in young women has increased significantly. Gender medicine has already demonstrated that women exhibit different symptoms. A new insight shows that stress in the daily routine has particularly adverse effects on the hearts of women. This was emphasised by Alexandra Kautzky-Willer, Professor for Gender Medicine of MedUni Vienna, on the occasion of the impending International Women's Day on 8 March 2016.

4 Mar 2016

PCSK9-inhibitor drugs: A game-changer for individuals with extremely high cholesterol levels

A 59-year-old heart patient with dangerously high levels of cholesterol that could not be adequately reduced by statin drugs now has near-normal cholesterol levels, thanks to a new class of drugs that grew out of work done by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

27 Feb 2016

Medical scientists examine potential new tool for helping prevent stroke, heart attack

Medical scientists just vetted a potentially powerful new tool for helping prevent stroke and heart attack. In a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers show that a drug reduced the risk of stroke or heart attack by almost a quarter in patients who had previously suffered a stroke or mini-stroke.

26 Feb 2016