This study sought to evaluate the ability of the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor evolocumab to reduce the risk of complex coronary atherosclerosis requiring ...revascularization.
PCSK9 inhibitors induce plaque regression and reduce the risk of coronary revascularization overall.
FOURIER (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with Elevated Risk) was a randomized trial of the PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab versus placebo in 27,564 patients with stable atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease on statin therapy followed for a median of 2.2 years. Clinical documentation of revascularization events was blindly reviewed to assess coronary anatomy and procedural characteristics. Complex revascularization was the composite of complex percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (as per previous analyses, ≥1 of: multivessel PCI, ≥3 stents, ≥3 lesions treated, bifurcation PCI, or total stent length >60 mm) or coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG).
In this study, 1,724 patients underwent coronary revascularization, including 1,482 who underwent PCI, 296 who underwent CABG, and 54 who underwent both. Complex revascularization was performed in 632 (37%) patients. Evolocumab reduced the risk of any coronary revascularization by 22% (hazard ratio HR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.71 to 0.86; p < 0.001), simple PCI by 22% (HR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.70 to 0.88; p < 0.001), complex PCI by 33% (HR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.84; p < 0.001), CABG by 24% (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.60 to 0.96; p = 0.019), and complex revascularization by 29% (HR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.61 to 0.84; p < 0.001). The magnitude of the risk reduction with evolocumab in complex revascularization tended to increase over time (20%, 36%, and 41% risk reductions in the first, second, and beyond second years).
Adding evolocumab to statin therapy significantly reduced the risk of developing complex coronary disease requiring revascularization, including complex PCI and CABG individually. (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with Elevated Risk (FOURIER); NCT01764633.)
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Summary Background Amputations in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus substantially impair their quality of life and impose high costs on health-care systems. Our aim was to assess the effect of ...fenofibrate on amputation events in a large cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods In the Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study, 9795 patients aged 50–75 years with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned by computer-generated randomisation sequence to receive fenofibrate 200 mg per day (n=4895) or matching placebo (n=4900) for 5 years' duration. Information about non-traumatic amputation—a prespecified tertiary endpoint of the study—was routinely gathered. Clinicians who were masked to treatment allocation adjudicated amputations as minor or major (below or above the ankle, respectively). Amputations were also classified on the basis of whether or not large-vessel disease was present in the limb, to distinguish those related to large-artery atherosclerosis from those predominantly related to microvascular disease. Analysis was by intention to treat (ITT). The FIELD study is registered as an International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN64783481. Findings All 9795 patients were included in the ITT population. 115 patients had one or more non-traumatic lower-limb amputations due to diabetes. Previous cardiovascular disease, microvascular disease, previous non-traumatic amputation or skin ulcer, smoking, and longer duration of diabetes were more frequent in patients who had amputations during the trial than in those who had other cardiovascular events or in those who had neither event (all p<0·001 for three-way comparison). Mean lipid concentrations differed between patients who had on-study amputations and those who had other cardiovascular events or neither event, but by no more than 0·2 mmol/L. The risks of first amputation (45 vs 70 events; hazard ratio HR 0·64, 95% CI 0·44–0·94; p=0·02) and minor amputation events without known large-vessel disease (18 vs 34 events; 0·53, 0·30–0·94; p=0·027) were lower for patients assigned to fenofibrate than for patients assigned to placebo, with no difference between groups in risk of major amputations (24 vs 26 events; 0·93, 0·53–1·62; p=0·79). Interpretation Classic markers of macrovascular and microvascular risk were associated with lower extremity amputations in patients with type 2 diabetes. Treatment with fenofibrate was associated with a lower risk of amputations, particularly minor amputations without known large-vessel disease, probably through non-lipid mechanisms. These findings could lead to a change in standard treatment for the prevention of diabetes-related lower-limb amputations. Funding Laboratoires Fournier SA (now part of Solvay Pharmaceuticals) and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
D-dimer, a degradation product of cross-linked fibrin, is a marker for hypercoagulability and thrombotic events. Moderately elevated levels of D-dimer are associated with the risk of venous and ...arterial events in patients with vascular disease. We assessed the role of D-dimer levels in predicting long-term vascular outcomes, cause-specific mortality, and new cancers in the LIPID trial (Long-Term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease) in the context of other risk factors.
LIPID randomized patients to placebo or pravastatin 40 mg/d 5 to 38 months after myocardial infarction or unstable angina. D-dimer levels were measured at baseline and at 1 year. Median follow-up was 6.0 years during the trial and 16 years in total.
Baseline D-dimer levels for 7863 patients were grouped by quartile (≤112, 112-173, 173-273, >273 ng/mL). Higher levels were associated with older age, female sex, history of hypertension, poor renal function, and elevated levels of B-natriuretic peptide, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and sensitive troponin I (each P<0.001). During the first 6 years, after adjustment for up to 30 additional risk factors, higher D-dimer was associated with a significantly increased risk of a major coronary event (quartile 4 versus 1: hazard ratio HR, 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.21-1.74), major cardiovascular disease (CVD) event (HR, 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.23-1.71) and venous thromboembolism (HR, 4.03; 95% confidence interval, 2.31-7.03; each P<0.001). During the 16 years overall, higher D-dimer was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (HR, 1.59), CVD mortality (HR, 1.61), cancer mortality (HR, 1.54), and non-CVD noncancer mortality (HR, 1.57; each P<0.001), remaining significant for deaths resulting from each cause occurring beyond 10 years of follow-up (each P≤0.01). Higher D-dimer also independently predicted an increase in cancer incidence (HR, 1.16; P=0.02).The D-dimer level increased the net reclassification index for all-cause mortality by 4.0 and venous thromboembolism by 13.6.
D-dimer levels predict long-term risk of arterial and venous events, CVD mortality, and non-CVD noncancer mortality independent of other risk factors. D-dimer is also a significant predictor of cancer incidence and mortality. These results support an association of D-dimer with fatal events across multiple diseases and demonstrate that this link extends beyond 10 years' follow-up.
The EBBINGHAUS (Evaluating PCSK9 Binding Antibody Influence on Cognitive Health in High Cardiovascular Risk Subjects) trial demonstrated that evolocumab added to a background statin did not affect ...cognitive performance in a subset of 1,204 patients enrolled in FOURIER (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research With PCSK9 inhibitors in Subjects With Elevated Risk).
The authors describe patient-reported cognition in the entire FOURIER trial using a self-survey.
FOURIER was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels ≥70 mg/dl or non-high-density cholesterol ≥100 mg/dl despite statin therapy. At the final visit, patients completed a 23-item survey on memory and executive domains from the Everyday Cognition (ECog) scale. Patients compared their levels of everyday function at the end of the trial with their levels at the beginning and scored as 1 (no change or improvement), 2 (occasionally worse), 3 (consistently little worse), or 4 (consistently much worse). ECog scores were compared by the 2 randomized treatment arms and by achieved LDL-C at 4 weeks.
A total of 22,655 patients completed ECog after a median duration of 2.2 years. The proportions of patients reporting cognitive decline (ECog score ≥2) at the end of the study were similar for placebo versus evolocumab, both for total score 3.6% versus 3.7% (p = 0.62) and for subdomains (memory, 5.8% vs. 6.0%; total executive, 3.6% vs. 3.7%). The proportion of patients reporting a decline in total cognitive score was similar among the 2,338 patients who achieved very low LDL-C levels (<20 mg/dl) compared to the 3,613 patients with LDL-C ≥100 mg/dl (3.8% vs. 4.5%, p = 0.57).
The addition of evolocumab to maximally tolerated statin therapy had no impact on patient-reported cognition after an average of 2.2 years of treatment, even among patients who achieved LDL-C <20 mg/dl.
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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). As disturbed angiogenesis and endothelial dysfunction are strongly implicated in T2D and CVD, we aimed to ...investigate the association between a novel anti-angiogenic protein, FK506-binding protein like (FKBPL), and these diseases. Plasma FKBPL was quantified by ELISA cross-sectionally in 353 adults, consisting of 234 T2D and 119 non-diabetic subjects with/without CVD, matched for age, BMI and gender. FKBPL levels were higher in T2D (adjusted mean: 2.03 ng/ml ± 0.90 SD) vs. non-diabetic subjects (adjusted mean: 1.79 ng/ml ± 0.89 SD, p = 0.02), but only after adjustment for CVD status. In T2D, FKBPL was negatively correlated with fasting blood glucose, HbA1c and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and positively correlated with age, known diabetes duration, waist/hip ratio, urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) and fasting C-peptide. FKBPL plasma concentrations were increased in the presence of CVD, but only in the non-diabetic group (CVD: 2.02 ng/ml ± 0.75 SD vs. no CVD: 1.68 ng/ml ± 0.79 SD, p = 0.02). In non-diabetic subjects, FKBPL was positively correlated with an established biomarker for CVD, B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), and echocardiographic parameters of diastolic dysfunction. FKBPL was a determinant of CVD in the non-diabetic group in addition to age, gender, total-cholesterol and systolic blood pressure (SBP). FKBPL may be a useful anti-angiogenic biomarker in CVD in the absence of diabetes and could represent a novel CVD mechanism.
People with diabetes frequently develop vascular disease. We investigated the relationship between blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OH-D) concentration and vascular disease risk in type 2 diabetes.
The ...relationships between blood 25OH-D concentration at baseline and the incidence of macrovascular (including myocardial infarction and stroke) and microvascular (retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and amputation) disease were analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models and logistic regression in an observational study of patients in the 5-year Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes trial.
A total of 50% of the patients had low vitamin D concentrations, as indicated by median blood 25OH-D concentration of 49 nmol/L. These patients with a blood 25OH-D concentration <50 nmol/L had a higher cumulative incidence of macrovascular and microvascular events than those with levels ≥50 nmol/L. Multivariate analysis, stratified by treatment and adjusted for relevant confounders, identified blood 25OH-D concentration as an independent predictor of macrovascular events. A 50 nmol/L difference in blood 25OH-D concentration was associated with a 23% (P = 0.007) change in risk of macrovascular complications during the study, and further adjustments for seasonality, hs-CRP, and physical activity level had little impact. The unadjusted risk of microvascular complications was 18% (P = 0.006) higher during the study, though the excess risk declined to 11-14% and lost significance with adjustment for HbA1c, seasonality, or physical activity.
Low blood 25OH-D concentrations are associated with an increased risk of macrovascular and microvascular disease events in type 2 diabetes. However, a causal link remains to be demonstrated.
Pulmonary vein isolation by cryoballoon ablation is an accepted method of treating atrial fibrillation. Little data exist regarding factors affecting late electrical reconnection of pulmonary veins ...following cryoballoon ablation.
To investigate factors determining pulmonary vein reconnection in patients undergoing repeat catheter ablation for recurrent atrial fibrillation following cryoballoon ablation.
Fifty-one consecutive patients undergoing repeat catheter ablation for recurrent atrial fibrillation following initial cryoballoon ablation underwent retrospective assessment of initial cryoablation characteristics, including balloon and vein sizes, venogram occlusion score, balloon freezing time from 0 to -30 °C, nadir temperature, and balloon warming time from -30 to +15 °C, recorded during the initial cryoballoon procedure.
Of 199 veins assessed, 91 had reconnected (1.8 per patient). Balloon warming time (odds ratio OR 3.21; 95% confidence interval CI 2.00-5.13; P < .0001), nadir temperature (OR 1.94; 95% CI 1.42-2.66; P < .0001), vein occlusion score (OR 1.74; 95% CI 1.29-2.34; P = .0003), and balloon freezing time (OR 1.58; 95% CI 1.03-2.42; P = .037) predicted pulmonary vein reconnection. On multivariate analysis, balloon warming time (OR 3.71; 95% CI 2.2-6.24; P ≤ .0001), pulmonary vein size (OR 1.63; 95% CI 1.08-2.43; P = .020), and vein occlusion score (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.06-2.08; P = .021) remained statistically significant independent predictors of pulmonary vein reconnection. The receiver operating characteristic for the multivariate model yielded an area under the curve of 0.82.
Balloon warming time, vein occlusion score, and pulmonary vein size predict pulmonary vein reconnection. Balloon warming time was the most important predictive factor, and the manipulation of balloon warming may be a novel therapeutic strategy for improving outcomes of cryoballoon ablation for atrial fibrillation.
Retinal vascular leakage, inflammation, and neovascularization (NV) are features of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Fenofibrate, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) agonist, has shown ...robust protective effects against DR in type 2 diabetic patients, but its effects on DR in type 1 diabetes have not been reported. This study evaluated the efficacy of fenofibrate on DR in type 1 diabetes models and determined if the effect is PPARα dependent. Oral administration of fenofibrate significantly ameliorated retinal vascular leakage and leukostasis in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and in Akita mice. Favorable effects on DR were also achieved by intravitreal injection of fenofibrate or another specific PPARα agonist. Fenofibrate also ameliorated retinal NV in the oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model and inhibited tube formation and migration in cultured endothelial cells. Fenofibrate also attenuated overexpression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and blocked activation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 and nuclear factor-κB in the retinas of OIR and diabetic models. Fenofibrate's beneficial effects were blocked by a specific PPARα antagonist. Furthermore, Pparα knockout abolished the fenofibrate-induced downregulation of VEGF and reduction of retinal vascular leakage in DR models. These results demonstrate therapeutic effects of fenofibrate on DR in type 1 diabetes and support the existence of the drug target in ocular tissues and via a PPARα-dependent mechanism.
Hybrid closed-loop (HCL) therapy has improved glycemic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes; however, the efficacy of HCL on glycemic and psychosocial outcomes has not yet been ...established in a long-term randomized clinical trial.
To determine the percentage of time spent in the target glucose range using HCL vs current conventional therapies of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion or multiple daily insulin injections with or without continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).
This 6-month, multicenter, randomized clinical trial included 172 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes; patients were recruited between April 18, 2017, and October 4, 2019, in Australia. Data were analyzed from July 25, 2020, to February 26, 2021.
Eligible participants were randomly assigned to either the control group for conventional therapy (continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion or multiple daily insulin injections with or without CGM) or the intervention group for HCL therapy.
The primary outcome was the percentage of time in range (TIR) within a glucose range of 70 to 180 mg/dL, measured by 3-week masked CGM collected at the end of the study in both groups. Secondary outcomes included CGM metrics for hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and glycemic variability and psychosocial measures collected by validated questionnaires.
A total of 135 patients (mean SD age, 15.3 3.1 years; 76 girls 56%) were included, with 68 randomized to the control group and 67 to the HCL group. Patients had a mean (SD) diabetes duration of 7.7 (4.3) years and mean hemoglobin A1c of 64 (11) mmol/mol, with 110 participants (81%) receiving continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion and 72 (53%) receiving CGM. In the intention-to-treat analyses, TIR increased from a mean (SD) of 53.1% (13.0%) at baseline to 62.5% (12.0%) at the end of the study in the HCL group and from 54.6% (12.5%) to 56.1% (12.2%) in the control group, with a mean adjusted difference between the 2 groups of 6.7% (95% CI, 2.7%-10.8%; P = .002). Hybrid closed-loop therapy also reduced the time that patients spent in a hypoglycemic (<70 mg/dL) range (difference, -1.9%; 95% CI, -2.5% to -1.3%) and improved glycemic variability (coefficient of variation difference, -5.7%; 95% CI, -10.2% to -0.9%). Hybrid closed-loop therapy was associated with improved diabetes-specific quality of life (difference, 4.4 points; 95% CI, 0.4-8.4 points), with no change in diabetes distress. There were no episodes of severe hypoglycemia or diabetic ketoacidosis in either group.
In this randomized clinical trial, 6 months of HCL therapy significantly improved glycemic control and quality of life compared with conventional therapy in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.
ANZCTR identifier: ACTRN12616000753459.
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