Role of niacin in current clinical practice

Despite significant risk reduction with statin therapy, there remains a residual cardiovascular risk. It has been seen that aggressive statin therapy in high risk patients may not lower the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to goal in up to 40% of patients. Niacin is a potent high-density lipoprotein cholesterol-raising drug, and has been proposed as an attractive approach to reduce cardiac events in patients with or at risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, previous evidence for niacin has been challenged by negative outcomes in two large, randomized, controlled trials comparing niacin to placebo with background statin therapy. In this review, summarize the currently available evidence for the role of niacin treatment for reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in current practice.