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The routine prescription of 1,500 mg of extended-release niacin daily with traditional cholesterol-lowering therapy offers no extra benefit in correcting narrowed arteries in seniors who already have coronary artery disease, a new study shows.
In tests on 145 Baltimore-area men and women all over age 65 with existing atherosclerosis, researchers found that after 18 months of drug therapy, reductions in arterial wall thickness were measurably no different between the half who took dual niacin-statin therapy and the rest who remained on statin therapy alone.
The results were the same whether they took any one of the three leading statin medications: atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvistatin (Zocor) or rosuvastatin (Crestor). Seniors on the dual-drug therapy had an average 5.4 cmm per month scaling back in plaque buildup in the main neck artery, while those participants taking just a cholesterol-lowering statin came down by 4 cmm per month, a difference researchers say is not statistically significant.
The team from Johns Hopkins is presenting its findings at the American Heart Association’s annual Scientific Sessions in Orlando.
According to senior study investigator and Johns Hopkins cardiologist João Lima, M.D., the lack of any discernible advantage occurred despite promising gains in bad (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and good (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) blood cholesterol levels in those participants taking vitamin B niacin. Results showed that in the group taking both niacin and a statin, blood levels of LDL fell 5 percent more than in the group taking only statin medications, but levels of HDL jumped 14 percent more than in the statin-only group.
“Our findings tell us that improved cholesterol levels from taking combination vitamin B niacin and statin therapy do not necessarily translate into observable benefits in reversing and stalling carotid artery disease,” says Lima. “This does not mean that niacin therapy may