Adding fat-lowering drug no help for diabetic hearts
Written By: Reuters-Bill Berkrot and Debra Sherman
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Published - Mar 18, 2010
Adding a drug that lowers blood fats known as triglycerides to cholesterol-fighting statins provided no additional protection from heart attack, stroke and death from heart disease in patients with Type 2 diabetes, according to data from a large study.
The study run by the National Institutes of Health, dubbed Accord, aimed to see if the dual-drug therapy could reduce heart disease and stroke-related events in diabetes patients at particularly high risk of serious heart problems due to additional risk factors, such as obesity and high blood pressure.
All subjects in the 5,518-patient trial took Zocor, which is available generically as simvastatin.
One group also received TriCor, which is designed to lower the blood fats known as triglycerides and raise “good” HDL cholesterol. TriCor belongs to a class of drugs called fibrates.