Exciting news for those with coronary artery disease. Study Finds New Drug Acts Quickly on Clogged Arteries
After five weekly infusions, those who got the experimental drug had a 4.2 percent decrease in the volume of plaque in their coronary arteries, while those who had saline infusions had, if anything, a slight increase in their plaque. By contrast, according to Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who directed the study, the most powerful statins, which lower levels of low-density lipoproteins, or L.D.L., which deliver cholesterol to coronary arteries, take years to show more modest effects.“It is astonishing, you have to admit that,” said Dr. Scott Grundy, a cholesterol expert, who is director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine in Dallas. “A 4 percent reduction in the size of the lesions is remarkable.”
