The study of combination therapy with simvastatin and acipimox for combined hyperlipidemia

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with Chinese domestic simvastatin and acipimox in patients with combined hyperlipidemia. Methods A total of 222 patients with combined hyperlipidemia were randomly divided to two groups, one group received 10 mg simvastatin (n=72) or 0.75g acipimox (n=74), the other group received a combination of 10 mg simvastatin + 0.75 g acipimox(n=76) for 3 months. The lipid profiles, physical and laboratory investigations for adverse effects were assessed. Results Combination treatment was more effective in normalizing lipid profile than simvastatin or acipimax alone monotherapy. Serum TC, LDL-C, and TG were reduced by 29.8%, 37.6% and 57.7% respectively, while HDL-C was significantly increased by 23.5%(P0.01). The improvement in TG and HDL-C in combination treatment was superior to acipimox or simvastatin alone. The success rate of TC, LDL-C and TG control in the combination therapy group was 51.3% , 55.3% and 61.8% respectively, with an overall success rate (all three together)of 44.7%, which was superior to either single drug given in this study. All treatments were well tolerated with no increase in adverse events for combination therapy. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated that combination therapy with acipimox (0.75 g/d) and low-dose simvastatin (10 mg/d) is more effective than single drug therapy in patients with combined hyperlipidemia, and is generally safe and well tolerated.