preview

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Decent Essays

INTRODUCTION
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with conditions of atherosclerotic (e.g. coronary heart disease [CHD] and stroke) origin representing roughly 80% of all cardiovascular (CV) death (Global Atlas on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control. Mendis S, Puska P, Norrving B editors. World Health Organization, Geneva 2011). In the U.S. alone, the cost of CVD and stroke is staggering with more than $320 billion (U.S. dollars) in both direct and indirect cost (Mozaffarian D, Benjamin EJ, Go AS, et al. Circulation. 2015). In attempts to change the current trajectory of CVD, considerable efforts have focused on reducing modifiable risk factors, such as smoking, diet and exercise, and …show more content…

With the introduction of statins, reductions in LDL-C have played an important role in preventing future and recurrent CV events. Numerous statin trials have shown that lowering LDL-C results in significant reductions in outcomes such as all-cause, CV and CHD death as well as non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI), unstable angina, ischemic stroke and coronary revascularization (CTT 2010, 2012). This relationship was also seen for the non-statin lipid lowering therapy (LLT) ezetimibe (Cannon et al). Further, randomized trials comparing the outcomes benefit of intensive versus less intensive statins have also suggested better CV outcomes of high intensive compared to lesser intensive statins (Cite – PROVE-IT, TNT, IDEAL A-Z, SEARCH). Yet, despite the beneficial effects of statins, contemporary data sources from health claim datasets and registries suggest significant underutilization and suboptimal use of statins, even among patients with atherosclerotic CVD (Hirsch BJ, Smilowitz NR, Rosenson RS, et al, JACC 2015; Lin I, Sung J, Sanchez RJ JMCP, in press; Johansen ME, Green LA, Sen A, et al. Ann Fam Med 2014; Fu AZ, Zhang Q, Davies MJ, et al. Curr …show more content…

One sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate a scenario where ezetimibe was removed from therapy if not effective at getting patients to goal. For example, in patients on atorvastatin 80 mg plus ezetimibe but not at goal, we removed ezetimibe (with adjustments of a corresponding increase in LDL-C) and added alirocumab instead. Additionally, a separate sensitivity analyses was conducted to determine the impact of lowering the LDL-C goal to the achieved levels seen in the IMPROVE-IT study, 55 mg/dL. Finally, we also simulated a scenario which only allowed for alirocumab if the LDL-C was > 75mg/dL. In other words, if oral intensification was successful at achieving an LDL-C < 75 mg/dL, we made the assumption that most physicians would think that level of attainment was sufficient in lieu of adding

Get Access