Topic:

Our latest Back to Basics is a wallchart highlighting key features about familial hypercholesterolaemia with links to other useful information.

In the first 15 months of its operation, Bradford’s Healthy Hearts campaign has significantly improved the cardiovascular health of local people, and saved an estimated £1.2 m for the clinical commissioning group.

Raised blood cholesterol is a major risk factor in developing coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases. Effective and well-tolerated lipid-lowering treatment improves outcomes for patients with elevated cholesterol, especially those with familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Detailed results from the FOURIER cardiovascular outcomes trial on evolocumab were presented at a late-breaking oral presentation at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Washington DC recently. This is the first major outcomes study to be published for a PCSK9 inhibitor – a new class of cholesterol-lowering medicines.

The full scientific programme, abstract and slides from a leading international course on familial hypercholesterolaemia are now available free to healthcare professionals.

People who complain of myalgia caused by statins may be suffering from a genetic problem, according to a recent paper published in the European Heart Journal.

A study suggests that high-risk patients are being under-prescribed statins whereas patients in low-risk categories are being overtreated. Researchers have shown that statins are usually prescribed without recording of the QRISK2 cardiovascular risk assessment score recommended by NICE. Even when a score is documented, the majority of high-risk patients do not receive statins

The benefits of lipid modification therapy in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk have been well recognised since the advent of effective treatments, including the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins). Use of statins is likely to have been a contributory factor in the fall of over 75% in CVD mortality in many industrialised countries over the last 40 years. Other interventions, including improved management of other cardiovascular risk factors, notably hypertension and smoking, have also been important. However, CVD continues to be responsible for one in four premature deaths in the UK, with rates in the most deprived 10% of the population being almost twice as high as in least deprived cohorts. 

Data analysis of patients’ prescriptions dispensed at a regional chain of community pharmacies found that 40% of patients who are prescribed statins never return for a second prescription.

Muscle-related symptoms are less commonly reported when patients and their doctors are unaware that statin therapy is being used, compared to when they are aware, according to a new study on ASCOT-LLA trial data.