New data provide metabolic syndrome insight
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Major cardiovascular events were more common in metabolic syndrome
patients |
Patients with both coronary heart disease and metabolic syndrome are
good candidates for intensive lipid-lowering therapy, according the authors
of a study published online in
The Lancet this
week (5 September 2006).
Metabolic syndrome was identified in 5,584 (56 per cent) of the 10,001
patients with coronary heart disease enrolled in the study. Researchers
found that more patients with metabolic syndrome had a major cardiovascular
event than those without metabolic syndrome (median 4.9 years, hazard
ratio 1.44, 95 per cent confidence interval 1.26–1.64; P<0.0001).
The paper is an analysis of existing data from the Treating
to New Targets (TNT) study (PJ, 12 March 2005, p291), which found that people with clinically
evident coronary heart disease suffered fewer cardiovascular events when
treated with intensive atorvastatin (80mg) compared with standard atorvastatin
(10mg) therapy.
Consistent with the previous findings, major cardiovascular events were
less likely to occur in the atorvastatin 80mg group than in the atorvastatin
10mg group (0.71, CI 0.61–0.84; P<0.0001) for the subset of
people with metabolic syndrome. The authors say that TNT patients with
metabolic syndrome saw a 29 per cent relative reduction in the risk of
major cardiovascular events in favour of the high-dose regimen. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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