-
- Laurence S Sperling and John R Nelson.
- a a Emory University School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University , Atlanta , GA , USA.
- Curr Med Res Opin. 2016 Jan 1; 32 (2): 301-11.
Background/ObjectivesEpidemiological, diet-based, and some interventional outcomes studies suggest that polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (OM3FAs), specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), confer cardiovascular protection in some patient populations. This review examines the historical context of OM3FAs in cardiovascular disease and future perspectives on the place of OM3FA products in reducing cardiovascular risk.MethodsRelevant articles were identified via PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar searches through 2015 and through reference lists of selected publications. Articles determined by the authors to be relevant to the topic of this review were included.ResultsReview of the identified articles indicated that inconsistent results among interventional outcomes studies have been attributed to use of low doses of OM3FAs, patient cohorts with non-elevated triglyceride (TG) levels, differential use of concomitant statin therapy, and study designs with insufficient statistical power. Several prescription OM3FA products are now approved as an adjunct to diet to reduce TG levels in adults with severe (≥500 mg/dL) hypertriglyceridemia. Most formulations contain both EPA and DHA; one formulation contains purified EPA. In randomized controlled trials, these products significantly reduced TG levels in patients with very high TG levels (≥500 mg/dL [≥13.0 mmol/L]) and in statin-treated patients with high TG levels (200-499 mg/dL [5.2-12.9 mmol/L]). The DHA-containing products raised LDL-C levels in these studies, whereas the EPA-only product had no effect on LDL-C, suggesting that all OM3FA prescription products are not therapeutically equivalent. Besides lowering TG levels, OM3FAs (particularly EPA) exert anti-inflammatory effects and may slow multiple atherogenic processes. Two well designed interventional outcomes studies (REDUCE-IT and STRENGTH) are evaluating prescription-strength, high-dose OM3FAs (4 g/day) in statin-treated patients with persistently high TG levels.ConclusionsThe results of the ongoing prescription-strength, high-dose OM3FA interventional trials will help define the potential role of OM3FAs in addressing residual cardiovascular risk despite statin therapy.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.