No added benefit of niacin with statins

Do patients on statins also need niacin?

Niacin has been used for years to treat hypercholesterolemia, but may not be as beneficial as thought for patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Until further research is done, niacin should be used only in patients who do not tolerate or respond to statin therapy, and never in patients who have achieved goal LDL cholesterol on a statin.

Clopidogrel added to aspirin adds no benefit but bleeding risk in patients with recent lacunar stroke.

No added benefit from nebulized amiloride in patients with cystic fibrosis.

In cystic fibrosis (CF) airway epithelial sodium absorption is increased 2-3 fold. Since sodium absorption is inhibited by the sodium channel blocker amiloride, our aim was to assess its therapeutic benefit in cystic fibrosis. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial of nebulized amiloride was performed in 23 patients with cystic fibrosis. Amiloride or placebo was admini...

Extended-release niacin/laropiprant: reducing niacin-induced flushing to better realize the benefit of niacin in improving cardiovascular risk factors.

Treatment with niacin effectively improves multiple lipid parameters and cardiovascular outcomes. Widespread use of niacin, however, is limited by flushing, which is mediated primarily by prostaglandin D2 (PGD2). Laropiprant is a selective PGD2 receptor 1 (DP1) antagonist that reduces objective measures of niacin-induced flushing symptoms upon initiation of therapy and with more chronic use. Re...

Statins Have No Additional Benefit for Pulmonary Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

OBJECTIVES We performed a meta-analysis to explore the effects of adding statins to standard treatment on adult patients of pulmonary hypertension (PH). METHODS A systematic search up to December, 2015 of Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic reviews and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials was performed to identify randomized controlled trials with PH patients treated wi...