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The benefit of adding ezetimibe to statin therapy in patients with prior coronary artery bypass graft surgery and acute coronary syndrome in the IMPROVE-IT trial.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Submitted by

Ruben Osnabrugge

Source

Source Name: European Heart Journal

Source URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=27569841

Author(s)

Eisen A, Cannon CP, Blazing MA, Bohula EA, Park JG, Murphy SA, White JA, Giugliano RP, Braunwald E; IMPROVE-IT (IMProved Reduction of Outcomes: Vytorin Efficacy International Trial) Investigators

The authors of this study aimed to examine the safety and efficacy of adding ezetimibe to statin in patients with prior CABG following hospitalization for an acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

In total 1684 post CABG patients were studied. The primary endpoint of cardiovascular death, major coronary events and stroke at a median follow-up of six years occured more often in the simvastatine+placebo group as compared to the simvastatine+ezetimibe group (51.2% versus 60.0%; p for interaction=0.02).

This study suggests that adding ezetimibe to simvastatine after ACS in post-CABG patients lowers the risk of cardiovascular events, supporting the use of intensive lipid lowering therapy in these patients.