Fri, Mar-30-07, 11:35
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Experimenter
Posts: 25,881
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Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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If you're considering statins... read this
http://drbriffa.com/blog
Quote:
Compared with placebo (inactive medication), treatment with rosuvastatin over two years reduced cholesterol levels, and also halted the progression of atherosclerosis. This all looks good on the surface of it. And not surprisingly, the publication of these results got a lot of press around the World and I’m sure made rosuvastitin’s manufacturer, AstraZeneca, very happy.
But let us not lose sight of the fact that the main outcomes this study was designed to assess (cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis) are surrogate end-points. They do not measure the effect of rosuvastatin on so-called ‘cardiovascular’ events such as heart attacks. The whole point of reducing cholesterol, we are told, is to prevent such events, after all.
What this study showed was that in the placebo group, no individuals suffered a serious adverse cardiovascular event. On the other hand, 6 individuals in the rosuvastatin group suffered a total of 8 serious adverse cardiovascular events (including heart attack and angina). Admittedly, the serious adverse effect rates in the treated group were low. But there’s no getting away from the fact that when we look at these outcomes (rather than the surrogate end-points the study was designed to examine), then the results of the METEOR trial don’t look as stellar as the press reports make them out to be.
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