AstraZeneca PLC's Crestor cholesterol drug slowed thickening in the neck arteries of people at low risk for heart attacks and strokes, but it failed to reverse thickening as researchers had hoped for.
Thickening of arterial walls is a precursor to plaque buildup, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Crestor is approved primarily to reduce levels of bad cholesterol, but AstraZeneca hopes U.S. health regulators will approve expanding the product label to say it can improve atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup.
On its own, the new Crestor study probably won't support the wider use of Crestor and other statins by people at low risk for heart attacks and cardiovascular events. But further studies in this large population could support greater use.
"In our study, the agent not only slowed progression of disease, but also caused the disease to come to a complete halt," John Crouse, a heart specialist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said in an interview at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Results of the study were presented here Sunday and published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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