The first late breaking clinical trail was presented today at the ACC Meeting 2018 in Orlando, Fla. The first study was titled “ODYSSEY OUTCOMES”. The trial set out to answer if PCSK9 compounds, in this case ALIROCUMAB (trade name PRALUENT), can reduce major adverse cardiac events in patients presenting with either a heart attack or unstable chest pain symptoms. All of the patients were treated with usual care. This included in most patients high intensity statin treatment. It was an international trial with over 57 countries participating. Over 18,000 patients were included. The main take away is that there was a significant decrease in the number of recurrent heart attacks and all a reduction in all cause mortality. Between this study and the FOURIER trial presented at this meeting in 2017 now provides overwhelming evidence that reductions in the amount of circulating low density lipoprotein (LDL) in your body especially after a heart attack can and will dramatically reduce the likelihood of it happening again. Very exciting times in this field and congratulations to the trialists that conducted this elegant study.
Disclosures: Andrey Espinoza MD FACC FSCAI was a site principal investigator for this clinical trail and also serves as consultant/educational speaker for Regeneron/Sanofi.