Statin Reduces Disease and Deaths from Newly
Discovered Protein Cause of Cardiovascular Problems
International clinical trial halted to rush
beneficial information to medical community
Nov. 9, 2008
The good news is that a massive clinical trial has been so
successful in reducing deaths and cardiovascular disease that it has
ended abruptly to rush the beneficial information to the medical
community. The bad news is that the international research team found a high level of
particular protein puts patients at increased risk of developing
cardiovascular disease, but this risk is drastically reduced by taking a statin drug.
The researchers with the international JUPITER
Project demonstrated that high levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive
protein (hs-CRP) leads to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. But,
this risk decreases by up to 44%, if the patients are treated with
statin medications.
"The risk of cardiovascular disease due to
increased hs-CRP levels has been greatly underestimated until now,"
according to Dr. Jacques Genest, of the Research Institute of the McGill
University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University Faculty of
Medicine.
"Our results show that this is an extremely
important indicator that doctors will have to consider in the future."
Dr. Genest, led the Canadian component of the
JUPITER clinical study, which was initiated by Dr. Paul Ridker of the
Harvard University Faculty of Medicine.
"We hope that this study will prompt a review of
current clinical practices, especially in terms of screening and
prevention in adults," he added. "However, we still need to do more
research to establish specific standards."
Those over age 65 hospitalized for heart
failure increased by 131%t between 1980 and 2006
Nov.
10, 2008 - Heart failure is reaching epidemic levels among
seniors in the United States, according to research presented at
the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2008. Among
the three major forms of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart
disease and stroke being the other two), only heart failure has
shown a significant increase in hospitalization rates.
Read more...more about heart
diseases...
The JUPITER study included 17,802 patients from 27
different countries. All had normal levels of cholesterol (LDL-c) and
high levels of hs-CRP, and according to current standards, were not
considered "at risk" for cardiovascular events, and were therefore not
receiving any treatment.
During the study, participants received a daily
dose of the statin drug rosuvastin, and its consequences were striking:
a 44% decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21% decrease
in mortality.
"These results definitely surpassed our
predictions," said Dr. Genest.
"We had to stop the study before its scheduled
completion, as the benefit of the treatment for the selected patients
was so great that we needed to present our findings to the medical
community as soon as possible."
Since statins have a cholesterol-lowering effect,
they are currently used to prevent cardiovascular disease in patients
who are at-risk due to high LDL-c levels. But cardiovascular disease is
also caused by vascular inflammation, which is marked by levels of hs-CRP.
This study shows that statins indeed act on both cholesterol and
inflammation, an effect that has long been suspected but not proven.
Background Information
This clinical study was
investigators-initiated and funded by Astra Zeneca.
Dr. Jacques Genest is Director of
Cardiology at the MUHC and Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics
Laboratory at the Research Institute of the MUHC. He also holds the
Novartis Chair in Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of McGill
University.
About the Research Institute of
the MUHC
The Research Institute of the McGill
University Health Centre (RI MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and
health-care hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec, the
institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university health center
affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. The
institute supports over 600 researchers, nearly 1200 graduate and
post-doctoral students and operates more than 300 laboratories devoted
to a broad spectrum of fundamental and clinical research. The Research
Institute operates at the forefront of knowledge, innovation and
technology and is inextricably linked to the clinical programs of the
MUHC, ensuring that patients benefit directly from the latest
research-based knowledge.
The Research Institute of the MUHC
is supported in part by the Fonds de la recherche en santι du Quιbec.
For further details visit:
www.muhc.ca/research.
About McGill University
McGill, Canada's leading university,
has two campuses, 11 faculties, 10 professional schools, 300 programs of
study and more than 33,000 students. Since 2000, more than 800
professors have been recruited to McGill to share their energy, ideas
and cutting-edge research. McGill attracts students from more than 160
countries around the world. Almost half of McGill students claim a first
language other than English including 6,000 francophones with more
than 6,200 international students making up almost 20 per cent of the
student body.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
Nov. 9, 2008
The good news is that a massive clinical trial has been so
successful in reducing deaths and cardiovascular disease that it has
ended abruptly to rush the beneficial information to the medical
community. The bad news is that the international research team found a high level of
particular protein puts patients at increased risk of developing
cardiovascular disease, but this risk is drastically reduced by taking a statin drug.
Nov.
10, 2008 - Heart failure is reaching epidemic levels among
seniors in the United States, according to research presented at
the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2008. Among
the three major forms of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart
disease and stroke being the other two), only heart failure has
shown a significant increase in hospitalization rates.