Good Cholesterol Study Underway

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- British researchers who helped establish the benefits of statins in preventing cardiovascular events by lowering LDL, or "bad" cholesterol levels, are now hoping to find similar benefits for a new drug combination aimed at increasing HDL, or "good" cholesterol levels.

The investigation, conducted by the Clinical Trial Service Unit out of Oxford University, will compare outcomes for 20,000 people randomly assigned to receive a drug combining a known HDL booster, niacin, with a drug that minimizes the adverse effects associated with the B vitamin.

All of the participants will be between ages 50 and 80 and will have already suffered a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke. Up to 7,000 diabetics will be included in the analysis as well. Participants will be recruited from the United Kingdom, China and Scandinavia.

The new drug combination has been designed to take advantage of niacin's HDL-raising effects while controlling its chief side effect -- facial flushing -- by blocking the key substance in niacin that causes flushing to occur. Many have show niacin can increase good cholesterol by as much as a quarter, but the treatment is not well tolerated due to the uncomfortable flushing it causes.

If the results live up to expectations, the researchers believe adding the HDL-raising treatment to current LDL-lowering drugs could significantly reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.

"This study of HDL-raising treatment is extremely important," says study author Jane Armitage M.D. "Vascular disease is a major killer in the developed world and, increasingly, in the developing world. In addition to encouraging preventive lifestyle measures, we need to find even better preventive treatments."

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SOURCE: Clinical Trail Service Unit press release, May 30, 2006