Coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease (CAD) and atherosclerotic heart disease, is the end result of the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the ...
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Vytorin: Whats the deal?
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Many of you have heard the news generated by results released by Merck about Vytorin..I know many of my patients called me about it
Here is the story: 1) As you know Vytorin is a mixture of 2 medications: Zetia (a non-statin drug) and Zocor (Simvastatin) 2) Remember when Zocor went generic Merck made the mixture of the two which enabled them to keep a cholesterol drug (brand name) on the market (more money for them...) 3) the ENHANCE trial looked at 720 patients with a familial form of hypercholesterolemia (Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia) 4) They compared ZOCOR alone to VYTORIN (the mixture of zetia and zocor)and measured 3 sites in the carotid arteries to see if they saw improvement (they measure something we commonly look at on ultrasound of the carotids called INTIMA-MEDIA THICKNESS or IMT) 5) THE RESULTS SHOWED no difference in the Zocor group vs the Vytorin group in the thickness of the carotid artery wall 6) There is an ongoing study (IMPROVE-IT) with 10,000 patients trying to see if there is a difference in cardiovascular mortality between the two.....no results yet....stay tuned..... Bottom line: if you are NOT AT GOAL LDL on the maximum dose of Zocor (Simvastatin) which is 80 mg....THEN it makes sense to add Zetia. Dr O. Posted on 01/25/08, 09:01 pm |
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phew 80 mg, I can't imagine... thats a very high dosage but how would Lopid 600mg compare to 80 mg simvastatin .I was on 20mg of simvastatin until I had some form of crazy drug reaction to it plus my triglicerides were going nowhere 5.88 then 5.95 six months later and now 3.69 with lopid 600 (always letting out a grunt like I'm trying to clear my throat because my trachia seems to be squeezing tight but theres nothing stuck in there its weird almost like its a deep throat muscle thing) 
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Hey Banff
1) The side effect profile is actually the same for simvastatin 40 and 80 mg...interesting huh 2) Lopid (gemfibrocil) is not a statin and really only works to LOWER triglycerides and raise HDL slightly but has not been shown to effectively LOWER LDL cholesterol. Dr O.
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