Word: nissen
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...Steven Nissen, the cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic who conducted the research, wasn't prepared to tell me that I should start taking Lipitor. But he thinks this study could change the way doctors look at cholesterol profiles like mine, because the findings suggest that the lower the bad cholesterol level the better. If further studies support this thesis, the government may be under pressure to reduce its recommended LDL level to below...
There's still a lot of work to be done. As Nissen points out, it's not yet clear whether Lipitor's protective benefits are due to its power to reduce LDL levels or to its ability to fight inflammation, a major cause of heart disease. And although it seems logical to assume that reducing fatty deposits will translate into fewer heart attacks and deaths, that hasn't been proved. The patients in this study will have to be watched a lot longer than 18 months to find out. Meanwhile, there are more statin studies in the works, including...
...infusing patients with an experimental drug, reported Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic in last week's Journal of the American Medical Association, he and his colleagues reduced the fatty arterial plaque that triggers most heart attacks by an average of 4.2%--about 10 times better than statins, the most effective drugs now on the market, and in the almost unbelievably short period of just five weeks. With only 47 patients, the study was too small to be definitive, but, says Dr. Daniel Rader, the University of Pennsylvania cardiologist who wrote an accompanying editorial in J.A.M.A., "it's very...
ApoA-1 Milano eventually became the property of Esperion Therapeutics, in Ann Arbor, Mich., which persuaded Nissen to conduct the studies that led to last week's report. If the results hold up in larger trials, they could be revolutionary. Statin drugs, which lower the bad LDL cholesterol that causes plaque in the first place, reduce the risk of dying from heart disease only 30% or so. By targeting HDL as well, the risk might be halved. Says Nissen: "We're starting to talk about really limiting what this disease...
...study also suggests that coronary-artery disease is much more dynamic than anyone had thought. "For a long time we saw coronary atherosclerosis as a chronic, progressive disease that just kind of marches along," says Nissen. "Maybe you slow it down, but you don't really change it very much." However, if you can reduce plaque buildup significantly in just a few weeks, he says, "that's a big shift in thinking...