The IMPROVE-IT study and ezetimibe

摘要

Cardiovascular disease is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the Western world and raised lipid levels (particularly low density lipopro-tein cholesterol (LDL-C)) is one of the major risk factors, with causation demonstrated in multiple large-population studies over recent decades, for example, the Framingham study (Castelli et al, 1992). Statin therapy in secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases is widely accepted as strongly evidence-based and protective against both coronary and cerebrovascular events (Pedersen et al, 1994; Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group, 2002), and fairly well accepted in primary prevention—as evidenced by the latest National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance (NICE, 2014), despite some recent controversy and argument in the medical press (Armitage et al, 2014; Diamond and Ravnskoy, 2015).