CardioExchange Archive

Meta-Analysis Finds Fibrates May Have Benefits: Jun and colleagues analyzed data from 18 placebo-controlled trials of fibrates with 45,058 participants. In their paper in the Lancet, they report that fibrate use was associated with a small but marginally significant 10% reduction in major cardiovascular events (p=0.048) and a slightly larger and highly significant 13% reduction in coronary events (p<0.0001). No benefits were observed for the endpoints of stroke, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or sudden death.

“The magnitude of the proportional risk reduction is more modest than that achieved with other vascular preventive therapies targeting lipids, blood pressure, and coagulation, and the clinical relevance of the effect reported here will be debated,” the authors wrote in their conclusion. “As for other drug classes, the real clinical value will depend on both the size of the proportional risk reduction and the absolute level of risk of the population treated.”

Big Drop in CHD Mortality in Ontario: Analyzing data from Ontario, Canada, Wijeysundera and colleagues found that between 1994 and 2005, the age-adjusted CHD mortality rate in the province declined from 191 to 125 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants — a 35% drop. The authors calculated that about half of the reduction was achieved through improvements in medical and surgical treatments. The other half of the mortality reduction was associated with changes in risk factors, despite the increase in obesity and diabetes during the period. The paper is published in JAMA.

Working 9 to 5 Is Good for the Heart:
Dolly Parton may have complained about it, but it turns out that working 9 to 5 is actually good for the heart. More precisely, working overtime is not good for the heart, according to a new report published online in the European Heart Journal. Virtanen and colleagues analyzed data from the Whitehall II study, which has been following more than 10,000 U.K. civil servants since 1985. They found that people who worked 3 to 4 hours of overtime (beyond a 7-8-hour workday) had a 60% increased risk of coronary heart disease.