American College of Cardiology Meeting In Brief: Merck's Mevacor
Executive Summary
Merck's Mevacor: In 1,351 patients having undergone CABG surgery with saphenous vein grafts, aggressive lipid-lowering therapy to below 100 mg/dL for LDL cholesterol resulted in a statistically significant 29% reduction in risk for substantial atherosclerosis progression in the saphenous vein graft compared to moderate lipid-lowering therapy to reduce LDL cholesterol to below 140 mg/dL, Lucien Campeau, MD, Montreal Heart Institute, reported March 26. The aggressive treatment group received an average 76 mg of lovastatin daily compared to an average daily dose of 4 mg in the moderate treatment group. A separate endpoint of the effect of low-dose anticoagulation therapy with warfarin showed no influence on atherosclerosis progression. Additionally, there was a trend for improvement in clinical outcomes in the aggressive lipid-lowering group over the mean 4.5 years of follow-up for the combined events of death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, angioplasty and bypass...