CardioExchange Archive

December 14th, 2010

Study Finds Inverse Correlation Between HDL and Alzheimer’s

Larry Husten, PHD

High levels of HDL are linked to a lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to a new study published in Archives of Neurology. Researchers at Columbia University followed 1,130 Medicare recipients in New York City with no cognitive impairment. After 4,469 person-years of follow-up, they identified 101 cases of AD (89 probable and 12 […]

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November 23rd, 2010

How Should We DEFINE Anacetrapib’s Success?

Philip John Barter, MD, PhD and Christopher Paul Cannon, MD

CardioExchange welcomes Philip Barter and Christopher P. Cannon, two of the investigators for the DEFINE trial, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here, they answer questions posed by CardioExchange’s editors. First, some background about the trial: In DEFINE, 1623 patients with or at high risk for coronary disease were randomized to receive […]

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November 19th, 2010

Will This Be the HDL Decade? REVEAL Revealed, Mixed Results for Apo-A1

Larry Husten, PHD

For a long time, HDL has been called the “good cholesterol.” Are we now entering the HDL decade? Two HDL-related trials were presented Wednesday at the AHA, and an array of additional trials are planned or underway, prompting the lead investigator of one of those trials, Chris Cannon, to speculate that this decade may be […]

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November 17th, 2010

Anacetrapib: “Knock-Your-Socks-Off Effect on HDL and a Jaw-Dropping Effect on LDL”

Larry Husten, PHD

Following the failure of torcetrapib in 2006, the future of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors appeared quite troubled. Now, with the results of  DEFINE (Determining the Efficacy and Tolerability of CETP Inhibition with Anacetrapib), presented at the AHA in Chicago and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, the future for this novel […]

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October 13th, 2010

Sequencing Study Identifies Gene Mutations Tied to Hypolipidemia

Larry Husten, PHD

By sequencing all protein-coding regions of the genome in two people with combined hypolipidemia, researchers have identified a gene that may lead to a new method to lower LDL cholesterol. The report by Kiran Musunuru and colleagues, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has its origins in a study started in 1994 of […]

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July 22nd, 2010

HDL and Residual Risk: A Surprising Finding in JUPITER

Larry Husten, PHD

CardioExchange welcomes Dr. Paul Ridker to answer questions about his recent paper in the Lancet, which analyzed data from JUPITER and found that HDL may not predict residual risk in patients on high-dose statins who reach very low LDL levels such as those achieved in the treatment group in JUPITER. The findings may surprise some readers, though […]

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