TUESDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- Fibrates can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, mostly by preventing coronary events, and might have a role in individuals at high risk of these events and in individuals who have combined dyslipidemia, according to research published online May 11 in The Lancet.
Min Jun, of the University of Sydney in Australia, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 18 prospective, randomized controlled studies comparing fibrate therapy to placebo for cardiovascular outcomes. The studies analyzed were published between 1950 and early 2010 and involved 45,058 participants.
The researchers found that fibrate therapy resulted in a 13 percent relative risk reduction for coronary events and a 10 percent relative risk reduction for major cardiovascular events. The risk of albuminuria was also significantly decreased in those on fibrate therapy. However, fibrate therapy did not result in a significant decrease in risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, non-vascular mortality, or sudden deaths. Adverse events, other than increases in serum creatinine concentrations, were not significantly increased by fibrate therapy.
"For high-risk populations, a proportional risk reduction of 10 to 15 percent would translate into a worthwhile absolute risk reduction and a plausible number needed to treat. The challenge will be to define this group in the clinical setting. The trial subset analyses that we report also provide some indication of groups that might gain greatest risk reductions from these agents," the authors write.
Several study authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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