Anticoagulation Use Quickly Rose to Meet COVID-19 Need tctmd.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tctmd.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
June 03, 2021
The PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab (Repatha; Amgen) cut LDL-cholesterol levels by more than 50% in patients at very high risk of cardiovascular events in the HEYMANS observational study, but almost half weren’t on a statin or ezetimibe, likely because they were intolerant to the drugs.
In this real-world analysis of patients with heterozygous FH (HeFH), only one-third were prescribed a high-intensity statin with ezetimibe while 44.5% weren’t prescribed any statin at all.
Kausik Ray, MD (Imperial College London, England), who led the HEYMANS study, told TCTMD there is an LDL threshold for financial reimbursement that ranges from 140 to 160 mg/dL among the different European countries, meaning that only patients with high baseline LDL-cholesterol levels are being prescribed the monoclonal antibodies. As a result, the most likely way these patients qualify for the drug is if they are statin intolerant.
February 08, 2021
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, patient presentations and autopsy reports made it abundantly clear that abnormal coagulation and multiorgan clotting were key signatures of this disease. Interim results from an eagerly awaited international, multiplatform randomized trial were released recently, suggesting that moderately ill patients but not those who require ICU-level care can benefit from therapeutic-dose anticoagulation. Yet it remains unclear whether that’s the right approach to take as a routine strategy.
More of TCTMD s coverage on our COVID-19 hub.
That’s a critical question as the number of cases caused by more-infectious SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to mount around the world and asymptomatic spread continues. When can an anticoagulant help and who might it harm?