Sunday, November 9, 2008
News from JUPITER (and New Orleans)
I'm at the AHA Scientific Sessions conference in New Orleans, and I'd be remiss if I didn't write about the big news of the day--the JUPITER trial.
Briefly, the trial randomized 17,802 patients with normal LDL but high hsCRP to either rosuvastatin or placebo. The patients had no history of cardiovascular disease, though some had risk factors like hypertension, obesity and smoking. The authors found that those who took rosuvastatin had:
-54% fewer heart attacks
-48% fewer strokes
-46% lower need for revascularization
-20% fewer deaths.
These findings held up across gender, race, ethnicity and Framingham scores greater than or less than 10%; there were no differences in cancer rates or serious side effects between the groups, either. There was also no difference in patients who had a BMI above or below 25.
The results are a big deal, of course, because half of stroke events and heart attacks are in people whose cholesterol seems fine, so doctors want to figure out a way to identify these people in advance.
Lead study author Paul Ridker, MD, said at a press conference that the results indicate providers could prevent 250,000 deaths over a five-year period. But discussant Andrew Tonkin, MD, said he'd like to see an absolute risk reduction done for various subgroups, as well as a cost analysis, before anyone starts ordering CRP labs willy-nilly.
"I do think we need to review the guidelines of where CRP sits in risk evaluation," Dr. Tonkin said.
The research still doesn't answer the question of whether lowering LDL or lowering CRP is the most important action, Dr. Tonkin added. Either way, said Dr. Ridker, the study provides some serious support for the safety and efficacy of statins.
"We have so many patients who are nervous about taking statins," Dr. Ridker said. "But the overwhelming evidence is that these drugs, as a class, are highly effective at lowering hard end points."
Labels: AHA Sessions, statins
posted by Jessica Berthold at
10:03 AM
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