Posted on 04/07/2004 9:24:26 PM PDT by neverdem
An experimental drug can sharply increase levels of H.D.L., the good cholesterol, potentially offering an entirely new way to help prevent heart attacks, researchers have found.
In a preliminary study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Tufts University found that the drug doubled H.D.L., or high density lipoprotein, in people with worrisomely low levels of the cholesterol. The drug, called torcetrapib, also reduced low density lipoprotein, or L.D.L., the bad cholesterol.
Until now, doctors have concentrated largely on lowering bad cholesterol by giving patients statin drugs, which are used by millions of Americans and reduce heart attacks by about one-third.
Many experts hope to drive down heart disease further by increasing good cholesterol, and several strategies for doing so are being tested.
The new study was small, involving just 19 patients, but its results suggest that torcetrapib can have a powerful effect.
The drug is still a few years away from reaching the market. The next step will be to test its safety and effectiveness in much larger numbers of volunteers and to find out whether the higher H.D.L. levels result in fewer heart attacks and strokes.
"One of the big questions that we do have with this drug is: will using it to raise H.D.L. levels from normal to high actually reduce risk in people who are at high risk?" said the study's senior author, Dr. Daniel Rader, director of preventive cardiovascular medicine at Penn.
Ultimately, the drug could be used in combination with statins for simultaneously lowering a patient's bad cholesterol and increasing good cholesterol.
The study, paid for in part by Pfizer Inc., the maker of torcetrapib, appears today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Currently, the only product on the market for raising H.D.L. is the vitamin niacin, but its effects are modest and side effects like itching and hot flashes bother many patients.
The 19 patients in the study took a 120-milligram torcetrapib pill daily for four weeks; 10 also took the statin Lipitor every day.
H.D.L. levels rose an average of 46 percent in those taking just torcetrapib and jumped 61 percent in those getting both medicines. Six patients took the torcetrapib pill twice a day in the study's third phase, and their H.D.L. jumped 106 percent.
In the United States, men's average H.D.L. is about 45 and women's is 55. H.D.L. under 40 is an especially bad sign, while anything over 60 is considered good.
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