2016•European Journal of Preventive CardiologyRequires access
Synergistic effect of ezetimibe addition on coronary atheroma regression in patients with prior statin therapy: Subanalysis of PRECISE-IVUS trial
Kenichi Tsujita, Kenshi Yamanaga, Naohiro Komura, Kenji Sakamoto, Seigo Sugiyama, Hitoshi Sumida, Hideki Shimomura, Takuro Yamashita, Hideki Oka, Kōichi Nakao, Sunao Nakamura, Masaharu Ishihara, Kunihiko Matsui, Naritsugu Sakaino, Natsuki Nakamura, Nobuyasu Yamamoto, Shunichi Koide, Toshiyuki Matsumura, Kazuteru Fujimoto, Ryusuke Tsunoda, Yasuhiro Morikami, Koushi Matsuyama, Shuichi Oshima, Koichi Kaikita, Seiji Hokimoto, Hisao Ogawa, for the PRECISE-IVUS Investigators
Open publisher page 13 citations
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The IMPROVE-IT trial showed that the clinical benefit of statin/ezetimibe combination appeared to be pronounced in patients with prior statin therapy. We hypothesized that the antiatherosclerotic effect of atorvastatin/ezetimibe combination was pronounced in patients with statin pretreatment. METHODS: In the prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter PRECISE-IVUS trial, 246 patients undergoing intravascular ultrasound-guided percutaneous coronary intervention were randomized to atorvastatin/ezetimibe combination or atorvastatin alone. The dosage of atorvastatin was uptitrated with a treatment goal of lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to below 70 mg/dl in both groups. Serial volumetric intravascular ultrasound was performed at baseline and 9-12 month follow-up to quantify the coronary plaque response in 202 patients. We compared the intravascular ultrasound endpoints in all subjects, stratified by the presence or absence of statin pretreatment. RESULTS: The baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (100.7 ± 23.1 mg/dl vs. 116.4 ± 25.9 mg/dl, p < 0.001) and lathosterol (55 (38 to 87)) µg/100 mg total cholesterol vs. 97 (57 to 149) µg/100 mg total cholesterol, p < 0.001) was significantly lower, and campesterol/lathosterol ratio (3.9 (2.4 to 7.4) vs. 2.6 (1.5 to 4.1), p < 0.001) was significantly increased in patients with statin pretreatment. Contrary to the patients without statin pretreatment (-1.3 (-3.1 to -0.1)% vs. -0.9 (-2.3 to 0.9)%, p = 0.12), the atorvastatin/ezetimibe combination showed a significantly stronger reduction in delta percent atheroma volume, compared with atorvastatin alone, in patients with statin pretreatment (-1.8 (-3.6 to -0.3)% vs. -0.1 (-1.6 to 0.8)%, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Compensatory increase in cholesterol absorption observed in statin-treated patients might attenuate the inhibitory effects of statins on coronary plaque progression. A low-dose statin/ezetimibe combination might be a promising option in statin-hyporesponder.