Among patients with diabetes or those with chronic kidney disease, anti-inflammatory therapy with drug canakinumab lowers rates of major cardiovascular events, reveals new research conducted by Paul Ridker, MD, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at BWH, and Brendan Everett, MD, director of the General Cardiology Inpatient Service at BWH. Findings related to patients with or at high risk of diabetes were simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and a paper on the CKD findings is forthcoming.
Two new analyses of data from more than 10,000 heart attack survivors worldwide were presented by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital at the 2018 American College of Cardiology meeting.
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Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Simple guidelines to avoid heart attack are listed.
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‘Canakinumab was found to be effective at reducing risk of cardiovascular events among heart attack survivors with diabetes or pre-diabetes.
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"Evidence continues to build that inflammation underlies many diseases and health conditions," said Everett. Our data also suggest that as cardiovascular disease and diabetes take root, the inflammatory pathways underlying them may diverge."
Everett and colleagues found that canakinumab was equally effective at reducing rates of cardiovascular events among patients with and without diabetes enrolled in the Canakinumab Anti-inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study (CANTOS). The drug reduced HbA1C levels - a key indicator of glucose tolerance - in patients with diabetes or pre-diabetes for the first six to nine months of the trial, but this effect was not sustained.
![Test Your Knowledge on Inflammation]( "Test Your Knowledge on Inflammation")
We are uncomfortable when there is a skin injury or an insect bite and we notice the area becomes swollen, red, itchy and painful. These changes are part of the inflammatory response occurring to protect the body against or limit damage due to the external injurious agent. Take this quiz to test your knowledge on inflammation.
In a new analysis led by Ridker, investigators found that canakinumab reduced major adverse cardiovascular event rates among high-risk atherosclerosis patients with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease, with the largest benefits accrued among those who had the most robust anti-inflammatory response. Canakinumab, an IL-1b inhibitor, represents a new class of therapy for atherosclerotic disease that lowers hsCRP and IL-6 with no effect on lipid levels.
"Moving forward, it will be important to extend these data and test the efficacy of canakinumab in patients with end-stage renal failure undergoing dialysis," said Ridker. "In that setting, hsCRP is a powerful predictor of risk while LDL-C is not, and dialysis is one of the only settings where LDL reduction has not been highly effective."
CANTOS was proposed and designed by investigators in the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at BWH, in collaboration with Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Ridker received financial support for clinical research from Novartis Pharmaceuticals to conduct the CANTOS. Ridker has served as a consultant to Novartis Pharmaceuticals and is listed as a co-inventor on patents held by BWH that relate to the use of inflammatory biomarkers in cardiovascular disease and diabetes that have been licensed to AstraZeneca and Siemens. Other BWH investigators involved in the new CANTOS analyses include Robert Glynn, PhD, Peter Libby, MD, Aruna Pradhan, MD, MPH, and Jean MacFadyen.
Source: Eurekalert
Test Your Knowledge on Inflammation
We are uncomfortable when there is a skin injury or an insect bite and we notice the area becomes swollen, red, itchy and painful. These changes are part of the inflammatory response occurring to protect the body against or limit damage due to the external injurious agent. Take this quiz to test your knowledge on inflammation.
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In a new analysis led by Ridker, investigators found that canakinumab reduced major adverse cardiovascular event rates among high-risk atherosclerosis patients with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease, with the largest benefits accrued among those who had the most robust anti-inflammatory response. Canakinumab, an IL-1b inhibitor, represents a new class of therapy for atherosclerotic disease that lowers hsCRP and IL-6 with no effect on lipid levels.
"Moving forward, it will be important to extend these data and test the efficacy of canakinumab in patients with end-stage renal failure undergoing dialysis," said Ridker. "In that setting, hsCRP is a powerful predictor of risk while LDL-C is not, and dialysis is one of the only settings where LDL reduction has not been highly effective."
CANTOS was proposed and designed by investigators in the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at BWH, in collaboration with Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Ridker received financial support for clinical research from Novartis Pharmaceuticals to conduct the CANTOS. Ridker has served as a consultant to Novartis Pharmaceuticals and is listed as a co-inventor on patents held by BWH that relate to the use of inflammatory biomarkers in cardiovascular disease and diabetes that have been licensed to AstraZeneca and Siemens. Other BWH investigators involved in the new CANTOS analyses include Robert Glynn, PhD, Peter Libby, MD, Aruna Pradhan, MD, MPH, and Jean MacFadyen.
Source: Eurekalert
Canakinumab
This medication is an interleukin-1 beta-blocker, prescribed for auto-inflammatory diseases known as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS).
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 More Use of Statins is Recommended to Prevent Cardiovascular EventsGuidelines from the U.S., Canada, Britain are much better in preventing primary atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), as they recommend more use of statins. | Advertisement
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