Lipids in Health and Disease

Background: Ezetimibe (Zetia®) is a potent inhibitor of cholesterol absorption that has been approved for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Statin, an inhibitor of cholesterol synthesis, is the first-choice drug to reduce low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) for patients with hypercholesterolemia, due to its strong effect to lower the circulating LDL-C levels. Because a high dose of statins cause concern about rhabdomyolysis, it is sometimes difficult to achieve the guideline-recommended levels of LDL-C in high-risk patients with hypercholesterolemia treated with statin monotherapy. Ezetimibe has been reported to reduce LDL-C safely with both monotherapy and combination therapy with statins. Results: To investigate the effect of ezetimibe as "add-on" therapy to statin on hypercholesterolemia, we examined biomarkers and vascular endothelial function in 14 patients with hypercholesterolemia before and after the 22-week ezetimibe add-on therapy. Ezetimibe addon therapy reduced LDL-C by 24% compared with baseline (p < 0.005), with 13 patients (93%) reaching their LDL cholesterol goals. Of the Ezetimibe add-on therapy significantly improved not only LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and apolipoprotein (apo)B levels, but also reduced levels of triglyceride (TG), the ratio of LDL/HDL-C, the ratio of apoB/apoA-I, and a biomarker for oxidative stress (d-ROMs). Furthermore, ezetimibe add-on therapy improved vascular endothelial function in high-risk patients with hypercholesterolemia. Conclusion: In conclusion, ezetimibe as add-on therapy to statin might be a therapeutic good option for high-risk patients with atherosclerosis. Background Atherosclerosis is the most common pathological process that leads to cardiovascular diseases, a disease of largeand medium-sized arteries that is characterized by formation of atherosclerotic plaques consisting of necrotic cores, calcified regions, accumulated modified lipids, Published: 12 October 2009 Lipids in Health and Disease 2009, 8:41 doi:10.1186/1476-511X-8-41 Received: 2 September 2009 Accepted: 12 October 2009 This article is available from: http://www.lipidworld.com/content/8/1/41 © 2009 Yamaoka-Tojo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.