The patient at risk: who should we be treating?

Both the European Atherosclerosis Society and the US National Cholesterol Education Program have issued revised guidelines for the prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD), based on a multitude of recent epidemiological and angiographic studies. Both authorities agree that a target plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level is the single most important parameter, this target level being different for primary and secondary prevention. The introduction of statins for the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia provides an important tool to enable target LDL-C levels to be reached in most cases of primary prevention. For secondary prevention, however, the target LDL-C levels--2.6 mmol/l (100 mg/dl)--may be achieved in only a fraction of cases. Others may require the concomitant administration of other cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as bile-acid sequestrants (resins) and/or derivatives of fibric acid (fibrates). The use of statin-fibrate combinations has been discouraged since the report by the US Food and Drug Administration of 12 sporadic cases of myositis or rhabdomyolysis. During the past 7 years, however, 21 clinical trials have examined the efficacy and safety of statin-fibrate combinations in a total of 486 patients with a variety of dyslipidaemias. Overall, the combinations were proven to be effective and safe, and the incidence of abnormalities in liver function tests and levels of creatine kinase (CK) was low. A double-blind study has been carried out at the Hadassah University Hospital to examine the efficacy and safety of fluvastatin when combined with either cholestyramine (group 1) or bezafibrate (group 2) for the treatment of 38 patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). Patients in group 2 showed a reduction in plasma LDL-C levels of 35% and in LDL-C to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio of 45% compared with 32% and 38% respectively in group 1. Both cholestyramine and bezafibrate produced an additional benefit of a 13% reduction in LDL-C levels in comparison with fluvastatin as monotherapy. An open-label ongoing study on a larger cohort of FH patients reveals that a decrease in plasma LDL-C levels of up to 38.5% may be achieved with a combination of fluvastatin 80 mg/day and bezafibrate 400 mg/day. In both studies, biochemical safety analyses revealed no notable abnormalities in liver function tests or levels of CK. It was concluded that fluvastatin-bezafibrate is a very effective synergistic therapy for heterozygous FH and is superior to a fluvastatin-cholestyramine combination.