Physicians not involved in the study described the results as a scientific triumph, calling the implications for drug treatment of heart disease “huge.”The findings provide validation of an idea that has been tantalizing cardiologists for years: that reducing inflammation could be a way to treat artery-clogging heart disease. The drug, an injection given once every three months, would then be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. This process is typically protective, but in heart disease, an inflammation response can contribute to the growth and rupture of fatty deposits that block blood vessels — the ingredients for a heart attack. But successful heart disease drugs that lower inflammation have other effects, such as lowering cholesterol. The results provide a clue to better treating what Ridker calls the “missing half of heart disease”: the many people whose risk of heart attack remains high, despite well-controlled cholesterol.

Source: Washington Post August 27, 2017 09:00 UTC