JUPITER and JELIS..
In Boston the blizzard is moving in on us we are entering a state of emergency...So...time to write...
JUPITER and JELIS, are two outcomes studies. JUPITER measured the effects of a statin, Crestor, on CVD (cardio vascular disease.) events including mortality. JELIS was a non blinded study run in Japan which measured the effects of purified EPA at 1.8gm/day in patients taking low dose statins, on CVD events including mortality..Each of these studies provides important data, but IMHO putting them together allows us to gain even greater insights into the whole issue of CVD, lipids, and inflammation..and suggests the upcoming REDUCE-IT outcomes study will very likely show not only significant reduction of cardiac events, but also decrease CVD mortality and all cause mortality..
Outcomes studies on statins prior to JUPITER showed statins decreased CVD events in patients which had a history of prior atherosclerotic heart disease eg. a "heart attack". Even though the statins improved cholesterols in patients with lipid abnormalities, they did not show stat significance as far as events and mortality is concerned..This fact, and the observation that over half of patients experiencing their first AMI have normal cholesterols raises the question of whether there is something missing in the notion that "heart disease" is caused by high cholesterol.
Then came JUPITER which showed the statin Crestor did what none of the others could which was to significantly improve CVD events and mortality in patients with elevated LDLs and no history of serious CVD...Since Crestor is similar to the other statin brands, how is this possible?...Well it turns out JUPITER selected patients with high inflammatory markers...Statins do lower inflammatory marker such as CRP...The mechanism is not clear. Logically elevated LDL might increase inflammation...What JUPITER suggests is high inflammatory levels in the presence of elevated LDL is a more dangerous situation than simple elevation of the lipids..The data on first time AMIs suggests we should be paying more attention to the inflammatory markers.
(cont JUPITER and JELIS part 2)
":>) JL
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
