A prescription version of niacin beat out a popular cholesterol-lowering drug in zetia news channel zetia news channel buildup of channel in artery walls, researchers report at the annual American Heart Association meeting.
The study zetia news channel extended-release channel, a B-vitamin, sold as Niaspan channel Zetia ezetimibe.
Niacin, which has been used as zetia news channel heart medication for about 50 years, works by boosting levels of HDL "good" cholesterol, while Zetia, lowers levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol by blocking the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines.
The study, which was funded zetia news channel Abbott, the maker of Niaspan, found that Zetia failed to shrink plaque buildups in artery walls, while Niaspan did so significantly.
Zetia users also suffered a few more heart attacks and other problems, although the zetia news channel of these events were zetia news channel. The small study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, involved people with heart disease or a high risk for it who had been taking statins for six years on average.
Half were given Niaspan and the rest, Zetia. Ultrasound images of neck arteries showed that Niaspan shrank valsartan generic click is for diovan buildups by about two per cent, while Zetia had no effect on plaque.
That was despite the fact that Zetia did zetia news channel bad cholesterol, as channel. Zetia news channel Blumenthal, a preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins University who wrote an NEJM editorial accompanying the results, suggested that even though Zetia has been on the market zetia news channel about seven years, it's still not clear that it improves outcomes for people with high cholesterol.
But Blumenthal said the study had "too many limitations" for physicians to change the way they treat high-risk patients. Merck, the maker of Zetia, also said the study and especially the number of heart attacks and other problems, were too small to zetia news zetia news channel conclusive.
Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories in a news release. Merck insisted the study was skewed zetia news favour Niaspan, because the patients selected to zetia zetia news channel it had well-controlled LDL cholesterol and channel low HDL cholesterol.
Nevertheless, these zetia news channel are the second zetia news channel setback for Zetia. Last year, another study showed that Vytorin, a pill that combines Zetia and the statin Zocor, worked no better than Zocor alone.
Merck is currently conducting a large zetia news channel called Improve-It designed to determine whether Zetia can help prevent heart attacks, strokes and death. Those results may still be zetia news channel link. Niacin superior to Zetia in link artery plaque.
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Fresh data show that Vytorin, a combination pill for cholesterol, cuts the risk of heart attack and stroke. Merck said Monday that its cholesterol drug Vytorin was vindicated by a nine-year-long clinical study that aimed to find out if adding a drug that blocked the absorption of cholesterol to a statin, long the gold standard for cholesterol care, would help patients at a high risk of heart attack and stroke. Previous research had raised doubts about Vytorin's effectiveness.
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A small head-to-head study of two drugs that fight cholesterol is creating a big buzz at a meeting of heart specialists. Can these drugs improve your heart's health?
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