Heart drug 'safe for kidney patients'
June 13, 2011 by Jonathan Wood in Medications
Blood cells: ‘bad’ cholesterol puts the hearts of kidney patients at risk.
(Medical Xpress) -- The full results of a trial show that people with chronic kidney disease can reduce their heart risk by taking a combination drug that lowers levels of bad cholesterol.
Taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins to combat heart disease is pretty standard in people without kidney problems.
But there was a great deal of uncertainty about using such treatments in people with impaired kidney function because of concerns about drug toxicity (the kidneys are key in getting rid of harmful substances). This is despite kidney patients being at high risk of heart problems.
The study findings were first reported at an American Society of Nephrology conference in Denver in November, but the full results have now been published in The Lancet.
The SHARP trial found that patients receiving the daily pill a combination of simvastatin and ezetimibe produced by Merck had one-sixth fewer heart attacks, strokes or operations to unblock arteries than those receiving a placebo dummy pill. And importantly, there were no safety concerns with the drug, which is already being taken by many people with normal kidney function to lower their cholesterol.
Professor Colin Baigent of the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) at Oxford University, the trials principal investigator, says: This is good news for kidney patients. People with this disease are in desperate need of new treatments not only to combat the disease itself, but also to reduce pain and suffering, such as heart attacks and strokes, due to side effects of the illness.
Over half of people with kidney disease will eventually be killed, not by their kidney disease, but by cardiovascular diseases. We now know there is something we can do about this and I believe this study will have a positive impact on the lives of many millions of people currently being treated for chronic kidney disease in the UK and around the world.
Chronic kidney disease is very common, affecting up to one in twenty of the middle-aged population, and substantially more of those who are older. Although people with chronic kidney disease are known to have an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack, it has been very unclear what treatments could prevent these conditions in this group of patients.
Dr Martin Landray, co-principal investigator of the trial at CTSU, says: Some doctors had thought that damaged kidneys might cause a type of cardiovascular disease that would not be preventable by lowering cholesterol, but the SHARP trial showed clearly that lowering cholesterol does reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with kidney disease.
The culmination of this long-running, large-scale trial involving 9,500 patients in 18 countries planning for which began in the 1990s marks the end of work in which Colin Baigent has had a great personal interest.
He developed kidney disease himself 30 years ago and needed dialysis before receiving a kidney transplant. He is clear that, Many of the young people who were receiving dialysis at the same time as me are now dead from cardiovascular disease.
Progress in the prevention of cardiovascular disease with drug treatments in kidney patients has lagged behind other patient groups, he says. The research community has tended to neglect testing promising treatments in kidney patients, partly because of fears that some drugs may turn out to be dangerous in people with damaged kidneys.
The SHARP study now shows clearly, however, that it is possible to find safe and effective drugs for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in kidney patients.
With over 3% of the NHS budget currently devoted to treating kidney patients, and that figure likely to rise, there is a need for better care of such patients, and the prevention of cardiovascular disease should be a high priority, says Colin Baigent.
More information: www.thelancet.com/… 9-3/fulltext
Provided by
Oxford University
-
Cholesterol drug shows benefits for kidney patients
Nov 22, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
'Statins' linked to improved survival in kidney transplant recipients
Jul 24, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Poor kidney function linked to future heart and brain problems
Sep 30, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Kidney disease linked to lower medication use after heart attack
Jul 09, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Low thyroid function common in chronic kidney disease
Jun 11, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense
May 18, 2013
-
If you became brain-dead, would you want them to pull the plug?
May 17, 2013
-
MRI bill question
May 15, 2013
-
Ratio of Hydrogen of Oxygen in Dessicated Animal Protein
May 13, 2013
-
Alcohol and acetaminophen
May 13, 2013
-
Marie Curie's leukemia
May 13, 2013
- More from Physics Forums - Medical Sciences
More news stories
Acne pill benefits outweigh blood clot risk: EU agency
Europe's medicines watchdog said Friday the benefits of acne drug Diane-35, also widely used as a contraceptive, outweigh the risk of developing blood clots in the veins—when correctly prescribed.
Medications
May 17, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
First influenza vaccine brought to clinical testing
Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Switzerland's Cytos Biotechnology AG today announced that the first healthy volunteer has been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial with their ...
Medications
May 17, 2013 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Aspirin not always best treatment for many individuals
(Medical Xpress)—An aspirin a day may not always keep heart disease away, say two University of Florida cardiologists. But a new algorithm they have developed outlines factors physicians should weigh as ...
Medications
May 16, 2013 |
3.5 / 5 (2) |
0
|
FDA: lower ambien's dose to prevent drowsy driving
(HealthDay)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved new, lower-dose labeling for the popular sleep drug Ambien (zolpidem) in an effort to cut down on daytime drowsiness that could be a hazard ...
Medications
May 15, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Simponi approved for ulcerative colitis
(HealthDay)—Simponi (golimumab) injection has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat adults with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis.
Medications
May 15, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
New theory on genesis of osteoarthritis comes with successful therapy in mice
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, ...
Computational tool translates complex data into simplified 2-dimensional images
In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual ...
Researchers identify a potential new risk for sleep apnea: Asthma
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a potential new risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea: asthma. Using data from the National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)-funded Wisconsin ...
Study finds that sleep apnea and Alzheimer's are linked
A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two.
'Gap' for HIV vaccine efforts after latest setback
The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8 billion in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.
Ginger compounds may be effective in treating asthma symptoms
Gourmands and foodies everywhere have long recognized ginger as a great way to add a little peppery zing to both sweet and savory dishes; now, a study from researchers at Columbia University shows purified components of the ...