Tag Archives: AIM-HIGH

FH: improving detection in primary care The launch of the NICE (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence) guidelines for familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) heralded great optimism for improving detection rates in primary care.1 Even with new research showing that FH is more common than previously thought,2  still around 80% of patients are not recognised. Novel detection approaches are clearly needed. Professor Nadeem Qureshi (University of Nottingham) presented preliminary findings from six GP centres taking part in FAMCHOL (Feasibility of Improving Identification of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia in General Practice: Intervention

While the failure of the first cholesterylester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor, torcetrapib, was blamed on its side effect of raising blood pressure, three more negative trials have also now cast doubt on the value of boosting HDL – AIM-HIGH with niacin, dal-OUTCOMES with dalcetrapib, and a genetic study published earlier this year in The Lancet, showing that people carrying gene variants coding for increased HDL levels did not have a reduced risk of heart disease. However, in a new analysis of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), published on July 11 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (http://dx.doi.org/10