Combination Of Drugs Could Prevent Many Heart Attacks: Imperial Study

Study in UK: According to a new study from researchers at Imperial College London and Lund University, a combination of drugs could prevent thousands of heart attacks.

A new study by Imperial College London and Lund University has revealed that the patients who are given add-on medication just after the heart attack have a better prognosis than those who receive these medicines later.

The research emphasizes that treating heart patients with a combination of the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe and statins could prevent scores of heart attack cases over a decade. The most common cause of death globally is cardiovascular disease, and a heart attack (‘myocardial infarction’) is the most common acute event of these cardiovascular diseases. Also, those who have survived a heart attack are at the greatest risk of getting another one in the first year, as the blood vessels remain sensitive after the attack. Currently, heart patients are given high-potency statins just after they get a heart attack to lower their cholesterol levels. However, in many cases, it is not enough to get the recommended cholesterol levels and needs an add-on treatment, such as ezetimibe.

Imperial Study On Heart Diseases: More Details

Margrét Leósdóttir, Associate Professor at Lund University and senior cardiology consultant at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden, commented, “Today’s guidelines recommend stepwise addition of lipid-lowering treatment. But it’s often the case that this escalation takes too long, it’s ineffective and patients are lost to follow-up. By giving patients a combination treatment earlier, we could help to prevent many more heart attacks.”

Co-investigator Professor Kausik Ray, from Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, said, “This study shows that we could save lives and reduce further heart attacks by giving patients a combination of two low-cost drugs. But at the moment patients across the world aren’t receiving these drugs together. That’s causing unnecessary and avoidable heart attacks and deaths – and also places unnecessary costs on healthcare systems. Our study shows the way forward; care pathways must now change for patients after this type of heart event.”

Dr Leósdóttir added, “Combination therapy is not applied up-front for two main reasons. General recommendations are not included in today’s guidelines and a precautionary principle is applied to avoid side effects and overmedication. However, there are positive effects from applying both medicines as soon after the infarction as possible. Not doing this entails an increased risk. In addition, the drug we have examined in the study causes few side effects and is readily available and inexpensive in many countries.”

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