This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Netke, S. Articles by Brown, B. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Netke, S. Articles by Brown, B. G.

(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2001;21:2099.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

Antioxidant Supplements and Simvastatin-Niacin Therapy

Shrirang Netke; Vadim Ivanov; Waheed Roomi; Aleksandra Niedzwiecki; Matthias Rath

Matthias Rath Inc. R&D,, South San Francisco, Calif

To the Editor:

This article¹ attracted our attention first because of the wide implications and second because of the related editorial comments² that sort of urged the physicians to "stop prescribing antioxidant vitamins to prevent and treat heart disease."

In these studies, subjects with coronary artery disease were divided into 4 treatment groups, namely (1) placebo group, (2) antioxidant group, (3) simvastatin-niacin group (S-N), and (4) simvastatin-niacin plus antioxidant group (S-N+A). The probability values for between-groups comparisons of changes from the individual values at the start and until the end of the study period (12 months) for several parameters (Table 2) indicate that there were no significant differences between the S-N group and the S-N+A group with respect to plasma cholesterol, plasma tri-glycerides, VLDL-C, IDL-C, LDL-C, HDL-C, HDL₃-C, apo A-I, apo A-II, apo-B. However, the changes in HDL₂-C values differed significantly between these two groups.

The intakes of simvastatin in these groups at the start of the studies ranged between 10 and 20 mg. During the course of the studies, intakes were raised to 20 to 40 mg for the subjects whose LDL cholesterol levels were not lowered to less than 90 mg/dL. Similarly, the intakes of niacin were increased from 2 g per day to 3 to 4 g per day for the subjects in whom the rise in HDL cholesterol level was less than 10 mg/dL. Evidently, some subjects failed to respond to the predetermined treatment, requiring modification of the treatment and thus creating subgroups who received higher levels . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Marian C. Cheung; Xue-Qiao Zhao; Alan Chait; John J. Albers; B. Greg Brown

Department of Medicine,, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash