Iranian Journal of Public Health (Jul 2019)

Efficacy of Ezetimibe/Simvastatin (10/10 mg) Versus High Dose Statin in Dyslipidemia Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

  • Gaoming YANG,
  • Dengfeng HAN,
  • Jianhua MA,
  • Xiaoning ZHANG

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v48i8.2979
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 48, no. 8

Abstract

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Background: The monotherapies of statin and ezetimibe had not successfully achieved their objectives in the management of lipid levels of dyslipidemia patients. We aimed to compare the effects of combined low-dose simvastatin and ezetimibe versus high-dose statin on the lipid-lowering treatment of dyslipidemia patients. Methods: We searched five databases published before May 2018, namely PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Clinicaltrials.gov. Completely published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effect of high-dose statin (S) with ezetimibe/simvastatin (10/10 mg; E/S) on the management of dyslipidemia patients were included. Results: A total of ten RCTs met the inclusion criteria, including 1,624 patients (E/S:691, S:933). Six outcomes underwent pooled analysis, including weighted mean difference (WMD) from baseline in total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), triglyceride (TG), and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C). No significant gap was found between high-dose statin and ezetimibe/simvastatin (10/10 mg) in LDL-C (-1.55; 95% confidence interval [CI]:-4.42~1.31, P=0 .29), HDL-C (1.05; 95%CI:-0.21~2.3, P=0 .1), TG (4.03; 95%CI:-4.53~12.58, P=0 .36), and hs-CRP (0.14; 95%CI:-0.50~0.78, P=0.67). However, there was significant difference found between the two lipid-lowering treatments in TC (-0.45; 95%CI:-9.07~ -0.83, P=0.02) and non-HDL-C (-4.97; 95%CI -8.46~-1.49, P=0 .005). Conclusions: Ezetimibe co-administered with simvastatin (10 mg) and high-dose statin monotherapy may show similar effects in reducing LDL-C, TG, and hs-CRP levels and in increasing HDL-C levels. However, the results suggest that there was greater TC and non-HDL-C lowering through high-dose statin monotherapy as compared with ezetimibe/simvastatin co-administration.

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