Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis (English Edition)最新文献

Plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels are twice as high in hibernating brown bears (Ursus arctos) than in healthy humans. Yet, bears display no sign of atherosclerosis development. To explore this apparent paradox, we analyzed lipoproteins from same ten individual bears plasma collected during winter (hibernation; February) and summer (active; June) in the same year. Plasma from fourteen healthy humans were analyzed as comparator. We used standard methods for lipoprotein isolation, composition and functional investigation. The results shows that in brown bears the absence of atherosclerosis despite elevated cholesterol is likely associated with two main athero-protective properties of circulating lipoproteins. First, a significant ten times lower affinity of low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) particles for arterial proteoglycans and secondly, an elevated plasma cholesterol efflux capacity. What does the brown bear data tell us? That elevated total cholesterol and apoB-containing lipoproteins not always associates with atherosclerosis disease. We need to look also at the lipoprotein biochemical features and functionality as they are relevant for arterial pathophysiology. What is the translatability into human of these results? We humans need to control our total and LDL-cholesterol levels. We are not brown bears!

Introduction and objectives

The treatment of dyslipidemia exhibits wide variability in clinical practice and important limitations that make lipid-lowering goals more difficult to attain. Getting to know the management of these patients in clinical practice is key to understand the existing barriers and to define actions that contribute to achieving the therapeutic goals from the most recent Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Methods

Observatory where the information gathered is based on routine clinical practice and the experience from the healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of dyslipidemia in Spain. The information is collected by health area through: (i) face-to-face meeting with three different medical specialties and (ii) quantitative information related to hypercholesterolemia patients’ management (ad-hoc questionnaire). Information includes patients’ profiles, assistance burden, guidelines and protocols used, goal attainment, limitations and opportunities in clinical practice.

Results

145 health areas are planned to be included, with the participation of up to 435 healthcare professionals from the 17 Autonomous Regions of Spain. Information collection will result in aggregated data from over four thousand patients.

Conclusions

This Observatory aims to understand how hypercholesterolemia is being treated in routine clinical practice in Spain. Even though the preliminary results show important improvement areas in the treatment of dyslipidemias, mechanisms to drive a change towards health outcomes optimization are also identified.

Migrant patients arriving in Spain often come from countries where there is no universal access to healthcare. Although the prevalence of arterial hypertension (HTN) is lower in West Africa than in Spain, there is a higher prevalence of masked HT due to the absence of health screening. Furthermore, patients with secondary hypertension may not be diagnosed. We present the case of a 36-year-old Senegalese man, with no known pathological history, resident for a year in Spain, who debuted with a hypertensive emergency. At the time of diagnosis, the patient had severe end-organ damage (hypertensive heart disease, hypertensive retinopathy). After the study, he was diagnosed with arterial hypertension secondary to malformation of the renal artery. After performing angioplasty, blood pressure normalized and, at 18 months, target organ damage had reduced. Migrants who arrive in our country must be incorporated into health screening systems to diagnose and treat possible unknown pathologies. In our case, the clue to secondary hypertension was the development of resistant hypertension with target organ damage in a young subject.

The incidence of atherosclerotic cardiovsacular disease (ASCVC) has increased in the developed countries. Dyslipidemia is a primary major risk factor for ASCVD and LDL lowering is one of the main objectives. Although treatment goals for dyslipidemias should be personalized in every patient, statins are cost-effective in primary and secondary prevention of ASCVD. New treatments with higher power and greater decreases in LDL, PSCK9 inhibitors, have made a new breakthrough in ASCVD treatment. The 2019 Guidelines for de Management of Dyslipidaemias: Lipid Modification to reduce Cardiovascular Risk (European Society of Cardiology/European Atherosclerosis Society) with the level of evidence and the strength of the recommendations can facilitate the best decisions and benefits to our patients in clinical practice.

Objectives

MEMOGAL study (NCT04319081) is aimed at evaluating changes in cognitive function in patients treated with PCSK9 inhibitors (PCSK9i). This is the first analysis: (1) discussion about the role of the Hospital Pharmacists during the pandemic, and also the assessment of the impact of COVID-19 in the lipid control; (2) descriptive analysis; (3) effectiveness in LDL cholesterol (LDL-c) reduction of alirocumab and evolocumab; (4) communicate PCSK9i safety.

Material and methods

It is a prospective Real-World Evidence analysis of patients that take PCSK9i for the first time in the usual clinical practice, and they are included after the first dispensation in the public pharmacy consultations of 12 Hospitals in Galicia from May 2020 to April 2021. Baseline values of LDL-c are the previous values before taking PCSK9 and the follow-up values are in 6 months time.

Results

89 patients were included. 86.5% with cardiovascular disease and 53.9% with statin intolerances. 78.8% of the patients were treated with high intensity statins. Statins most used were rosuvastatin (34.1%) and atorvastatin (20.5%). Baseline value of LDL-c was 148 mg/dl and the follow-up value was 71 mg/dl. The baseline value of patients treated with alirocumab (N = 43) was 144 mg/dl and 73 mg/dl in the follow-up. With evolocumab (N = 46) was 151 mg/dl in basaline and 69 mg/dl in follow-up. The LDLc- reduction was 51.21% with evolocumab and 51.05% with alirocumab. 43.1% of the patients showed values >70 mg/dl in six month time; 19.4% between 69 mg/dl and 55 mg/dl and 37.5% <55 mg/dL. 58.3% of the patients achieved a reduction >50% of LDL-c. The adverse events were: injection point reaction (N = 2), myalgias (N = 1), flu-like symptoms (N = 1) and neurocognitive worsening (N = 1).

Conclusions

(1) Despite the number of prescriptions was reduced because of the pandemic, the lipid control was not affected. (2) Half of the patients treated with PSCK9i is due to statins intolerance and the 86% is for secondary prevention. (2) The reduction results were similar to pivotal clinical trials. Despite this, 39% of the total of the patients and 60% of patients with dual teraphy did not reach the goal of ESC/EAS guidelines (< 55 mg/dl and/or reduction > 50%). There were not significant differences between evolocumab and alirocumab: 51.21% vs 51.05% (P = .972). (3) There were not any adverse events of special interest. The possible neurocognitive worsening will be studied as the primary endpoint once the MEMOGAL study has been completed.

Introduction

Metabolic syndrome is a pathological entity associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Data regarding the frequency of this syndrome, lipid profile, and atherogenic index of plasma in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis are scarce.

We aim to determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with spondyloarthritis. We also aim to determine discriminative values of atherogenic indexes between patients with and without metabolic syndrome.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study including 51 patients meeting the ASAS 2009 criteria for radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. We measured the following parameters: triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoproteins (HDL_c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL_c), and total cholesterol (TC). We calculated TC/HDL_c, TG/HDL_c, LDL_c/HDL_c ratios, and atherogenic index of plasma (LogTG/HDL_c).

Results

Metabolic syndrome was noted in 33% of cases. Patients with active disease had a higher body mass index (26.89 ± 5.88 versus 23.63 ± 4.47 kg/m², p = 0.03), higher TG (1.41 ± 0.64 versus 0.89 ± 0.5 mmol/L, p = 0.05) and a lower HDL_c level (1 ± 0.28 versus 1.31 ± 0.22 mmol/L, p = 0.01). However, the LogTG/HDL_c and TG/HDL_c were higher in patients under TNFα inhibitors. The ability of the TG/HDL_c ratio and LogTG/HDL_c to distinguish patients with or without metabolic syndrome were good at cut-offs of 1.33 and 0.22, respectively (specificity: 91.2% and sensitivity 70.6% for both ratios).

Conclusion

Our study showed that metabolic syndrome is frequent in patients with axial spondyloarthritis. Atherogenic indexes can be used for predicting metabolic syndrome in these patients.