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.

New cholesterol guidelines represent the biggest change in more than 25 years

New cholesterol guidelines for identifying adults at risk for heart disease represent the biggest change in such expert advice in more than 25 years, according to Loyola University Health System preventive cardiology experts.

15 Nov 2013

Study finds few beneficial effects of metformin drug for cardiovascular disease in people without diabetes

Despite high expectations for the commonly used diabetes drug metformin to improve risk factors for heart disease in people without diabetes, few beneficial effects have been found in a randomised trial of patients with established cardiovascular disease, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

7 Nov 2013

Use of effective, risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies across US

A new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project shows that the use of both effective and risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies widely across U.S. regions, offering further evidence that location is a key determinant in the quality and cost of the medical care that patients receive.

18 Oct 2013

Statins may increase risk of cataracts among individuals above 30 years old

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cataracts are the number one cause of vision loss in the United States. Nearly 22 million Americans age 40 and over have cataracts, while more than half of individuals age 80 and over suffer from this condition. In a recent study released in JAMA Ophthalmology, it was confirmed that statins, which are typically prescribed to reduce cholesterol and also prevent heart disease, may cause an increased risk for cataracts among individuals ages 30 through 85.

14 Oct 2013

Study: Statin do not improve VAP outcomes

Laurent Papazian, M.D., Ph.D., of H-pital Nord, Marseille, France, and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether statin therapy decreased day-28 mortality among intensive care unit patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia.

11 Oct 2013

High-dose statins could have added benefit of reducing gum inflammation

The use of high-dose statins to lower cholesterol in heart disease patients appears to have the added benefit of reducing gum inflammation, according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

4 Oct 2013

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could be alternative treatment for people who take statins

A new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that target a recently discovered regulator of harmful cholesterol could be an alternative or complementary treatment for the 30 million people who take statins, after the first trial in humans confirms the technique’s feasibility and safety.

4 Oct 2013

Statin medications pose no threat to short-term memory and may protect against dementia

A review of dozens of studies on the use of statin medications to prevent heart attacks shows that the commonly prescribed drugs pose no threat to short-term memory, and that they may even protect against dementia when taken for more than one year.

2 Oct 2013

Preoperative statin therapy improves results for isolated CABG and AVR operations

Patients receiving statin therapy before coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery appear to have a reduced risk of post-surgical mortality, stroke, and atrial fibrillation (irregular or rapid heart rate), according to an article in the October 2013 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

1 Oct 2013

Research roundup: Managed care for dementia patients; bundled payments after the hospital; disparities among Medicare beneficiaries

Dementia is a leading cause of death in the United States; however, patients dying with this disease may not receive optimal end-of-life care. ... many of these [nursing home] residents commonly experience burdensome and costly interventions, such as hospital transfers, tube-feeding, and intravenous antibiotics. ... Nursing home reimbursement policies are among the factors that incentivize more aggressive care. ... This study linked unique prospective clinical data with Medicare claims to describe and compare patterns of care between nursing home residents with advanced dementia enrolled in a Medicare managed-care insurance plan and those with fee-for-service Medicare.

30 Sep 2013

Research shows commonly prescribed statin medicines can adversely affect cognitive function

New research that looked at whether two commonly prescribed statin medicines, used to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or 'bad cholesterol' levels in the blood, can adversely affect cognitive function has found that one of the drugs tested caused memory impairment in rats.

26 Sep 2013

Genetics in Medicine's October 2013 issue details solutions for integrating genomic data into EHR

Genetic tests can now tell us whether we are at increased risk of various cancers, heart or kidney disease, asthma and a number of other conditions.

20 Sep 2013

Large numbers of kidney disease patients inappropriately prescribed statins to lower cholesterol

A new analysis concludes that large numbers of patients in advanced stages of kidney disease are inappropriately being prescribed statins to lower their cholesterol - drugs that offer them no benefit and may increase other health risks such as diabetes, dementia or muscle pain.

11 Sep 2013

Most patients who report statin intolerance can actually tolerate drugs on subsequent trials

Most patients who report statin intolerance, including muscle aches and other side effects from the cholesterol-lowering drugs, can actually tolerate drugs from this class on subsequent trials, according to research from Cleveland Clinic recently released online and forthcoming in the September issue of the American Heart Journal. The study is the largest ever to examine the effects of re-challenging statin-intolerant patients.

10 Sep 2013

Study: Fixed-dose combination medication helps CVD patients

In a randomized trial that included about 2,000 patients with or at high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), use of a fixed-dose combination medication for blood pressure, cholesterol, and platelet control compared to usual care resulted in significantly improved medication adherence after 15 months and small improvements in systolic blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, according to a study in the September 4 issue of JAMA.

4 Sep 2013

Esperion Therapeutics reports positive results from ETC-1002 Phase 2a study for LDL-C treatment

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced positive top-line results from a Phase 2a study of ETC-1002 when added to statin therapy in patients with elevated levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or "bad cholesterol").

4 Sep 2013

Reimbursement systems appear to impact on achievement of cholesterol lowering targets

Dr Gitt said: "There are wide variations between European countries in the achievement of LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) targets. However the effect of different reimbursement systems on meeting the targets was unknown."

2 Sep 2013

CAD patients with very low LDL-C levels benefit from statin treatment

Dr Nakano said: "Many randomised clinical trials, such as Treating to New Targets (TNT) and PROVE IT-TIMI, have shown that aggressive cholesterol lowering with statins improves clinical outcomes in patients with CAD and high LDL-C levels.1,2 But until now it was not known whether aggressive lipid lowering with statins would also benefit CAD patients with very low LDL-C levels."

2 Sep 2013

Study finds that high potency statins can beat dementia

Dr Lin said: "Statins are widely used in the older population to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. But recent reports of statin-associated cognitive impairment have led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to list statin-induced cognitive changes, especially for the older population, in its safety communications."

2 Sep 2013

Meta-analysis indicates protective effect of statins in preventing cataracts

Cataracts are the leading cause of visual impairment worldwide affecting more than 20 million people. Statins are among the most commonly prescribed medications. In the USA they are prescribed to 1 in 3 people over 45 years of age at a cost of $35 billion annually.

2 Sep 2013

Statin News and Research

Further Reading

New cholesterol guidelines represent the biggest change in more than 25 years

Study finds few beneficial effects of metformin drug for cardiovascular disease in people without diabetes

Use of effective, risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies across US

Statins may increase risk of cataracts among individuals above 30 years old

Study: Statin do not improve VAP outcomes

High-dose statins could have added benefit of reducing gum inflammation

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could be alternative treatment for people who take statins

Statin medications pose no threat to short-term memory and may protect against dementia

Preoperative statin therapy improves results for isolated CABG and AVR operations

Research roundup: Managed care for dementia patients; bundled payments after the hospital; disparities among Medicare beneficiaries

Research shows commonly prescribed statin medicines can adversely affect cognitive function

Genetics in Medicine's October 2013 issue details solutions for integrating genomic data into EHR

Large numbers of kidney disease patients inappropriately prescribed statins to lower cholesterol

Most patients who report statin intolerance can actually tolerate drugs on subsequent trials

Study: Fixed-dose combination medication helps CVD patients

Esperion Therapeutics reports positive results from ETC-1002 Phase 2a study for LDL-C treatment

Reimbursement systems appear to impact on achievement of cholesterol lowering targets

CAD patients with very low LDL-C levels benefit from statin treatment

Study finds that high potency statins can beat dementia

Meta-analysis indicates protective effect of statins in preventing cataracts

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