Tag Archives: statins
Statin Therapy in the Elderly and Quality vs Cost
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th May 2017The JAMA published a study online which examines the Effect of Statin Treatment vs Usual Care on Primary CV Prevention Among Older Adults. The full paper is below as a pdf file. I’ve written about the overuse of this type of cholesterol lowering drugs in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease several times. Primary prevention…
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Statins For the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th November 2016The use of statins (drugs which lower blood cholesterol) for the primary prevention of CV disease has been controversial since the drugs became available almost 30 years ago. Primary prevention is the prevention of a disease which the patient does not have, eg a stroke or a heart attack. Secondary prevention is the prevention of…
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Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd July 2010Measurement of blood cholesterol concentration is another screening test that has been widely employed without good evidence for its utility. There is no doubt that patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) benefit from the lowering of their blood cholesterol with statin (Lipitor and similar drugs) therapy – so called secondary prevention. But most primary care…
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Statins and Venous Thromboembolic Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd April 2009The New England Journal of Medicine just published a paper examining whether the cholesterol lowering drug rosuvastatin (brand name Crestor) prevented venous thromboembolic disease. The study concludes that statin therapy does reduce the likelihood of this disorder. But like so much in medicine there’s less here than meets first glance. To begin with all the…
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