Increase the good cholesterol not enough to reduce the risk ofheart attackaccording to the results of a study presented at the annual conference of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), held in Chicago (USA).
Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia carried out a phase 3 clinical trial with 12,000 participants to find out if raising the level of good cholesterol would reduce the risk of heart disease. For the study, the scientists used a drug “evacetrapib”, from Eli Lilly laboratories. For 18 months, the participants took this treatment. The researchers observed a 37% reduction in bad cholesterol and a 130% increase in good cholesterol compared to patients who took a placebo. But, the results of the study showed no benefit on the risks ofheart attackstroke, angina or the number of deaths resulting from these problems.
“We are here in the presence of a paradox: while this molecule doubles the levels of good cholesterol and markedly reduces bad cholesterol, despite this there is no clinical effect”, emphasizes Dr. Stephen Nicholls, professor of cardiology at the University of Alelaide in Australia, one of the main authors of this work. “We We were disappointed and also surprised by these results”.
“These results could in fact completely challenge the conventional idea that high levels of good cholesterol have protective effects for the cardiovascular system,” concludes the researcher.
Heart disease in numbers
The cardiovascular illnesses cause twice as many deaths in Europe as cancers and kill around 4 million people a year. 1.8 million suffer from coronary heart disease, one million from stroke and 1.2 others heart disease.
According to data from the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS), around 100,000 people are affected by a heart attack or heart attack in France. If the care has made it possible, in ten years, to reduce mortality, 13% of patients still die.
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