Drugs prove effective against heart disease

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 34

Drugs prove effective against heart disease

Cholesterol-lowering drugs can halt the deterioration of coronary arteries for some heart-disease victims, overseas studies have proved for the first time.

A physician at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Dr E. D. Janus, returned with news of the study from a recent Californian conference of the American Heart Association. His trip was funded by the New Zealand National Heart Foundation.

Doctors at a leading American institute did the five-year study on 140 patients with heart disease and high cholesterol levels. Half were prescribed a cholesterol-lowering drug and the others given place-

bos. At the end of the five years, seven of those taking the placebos had died and five had further heart attacks. Five of the patients taking the drug, cholestyramine, had died and three had further attacks.

More important was a comparison of their coronary angiograms, X-rays which revealed blockages and narrowings of the heart arteries.

“In the people treated, the arteries had stayed much the same, whereas the arteries of the people on the placebos had got worse,” Dr Janus said.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs were widely used in the Western world, based on

evidence that people with high cholesterol levels were more prone to . heart disease.

However, Dr Janus said the study at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Maryland was the first of its kind specifically to demonstrate the effect such drugs had on the coronary arteries. A similar study had been done in Finland. Researchers had even found an occasional case where the condition of a patient’s coronary arteries improved while he was taking the drugs. Dr Janus estimated that at least 800 Christchurch people were taking choles-terol-lowering drugs.