Publications by authors named "Mellies M"

Background: Although diabetes is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), little information is available on the effects of lipid lowering in diabetic patients. We determined whether lipid-lowering treatment with pravastatin prevents recurrent cardiovascular events in diabetic patients with CHD and average cholesterol levels.

Methods And Results: The Cholesterol And Recurrent Events (CARE) trial, a 5-year trial that compared the effect of pravastatin and placebo, included 586 patients (14.

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Recent landmark studies using hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl-Co-enzyme A reductase inhibitors (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors or statins), specifically, pravastatin and simvastatin, have led to dramatic changes in medical practice. These clinical trials have demonstrated that clinicians can impact coronary morbidity and mortality in primary (pravastatin) and secondary (pravastatin, simvastatin) prevention settings, including post-infarct patients with 'normal' cholesterol levels (pravastatin). The clinical benefit can be seen irrespective of risk factors at baseline and in women, the elderly and diabetics.

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Lipoprotein a [Lp(a)] has emerged as a critical factor in the assessment of cardiovascular risk. In the study reported here, Lp(a) concentrations were monitored in patients taking pravastatin, a new hydrophilic, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor. A cohort of patients with frozen plasma aliquots at baseline, week 12 of the double-blind therapy, and week 48 of open-label therapy (1 years' treatment) was selected from 306 participants in a phase 2 dose-ranging study of pravastatin.

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Epidemiologic evidence linking elevated cholesterol concentrations and coronary heart disease (CHD) through the eighth decade of life provides a rationale for lowering cholesterol concentrations to reduce morbidity and mortality from CHD. Pravastatin, a well tolerated HMG CoA reductase inhibitor with a convenient once-daily dosing regimen, has been shown to effectively lower total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Individual data from more than 1800 hypercholesterolemic patients enrolled in six double-blind, randomized, multicenter studies were pooled and then analyzed to compare the safety and efficacy of pravastatin in the elderly (i.

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Pravastatin is a new lipid-lowering drug belonging to the class of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors. Since 1986, more than 15,000 patients have received pravastatin in sponsored clinical research trials with more than 21,000 cumulative patient-years of exposure to the drug. Analysis of long-term follow-up data from 1142 patients participating between 1986 and 1990 in six core randomized clinical trials in the United States confirms the favorable safety profile of pravastatin.

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This 8-week multicenter, placebo-controlled trial compared the efficacy and safety of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, pravastatin, when administered either as single doses of 40 mg in the morning (AM) or evening (PM) or 20 mg twice daily (bid) in 196 diet-stabilized outpatients with primary type II hypercholesterolemia. Mean reductions in total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentrations were observed in all pravastatin groups after 1 week and were sustained throughout the study (P less than or equal to 0.001 versus baseline and placebo).

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This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response study was conducted in patients with primary hypercholesterolemia to examine the effects of pravastatin, a selective inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase, on plasma lipids and lipoproteins. A total of 306 patients on cholesterol-lowering diets received twice daily doses of 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg pravastatin, or placebo for 12 weeks. Marked reductions in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and total cholesterol were observed after 1 week of treatment; maximum lipid-lowering effects occurred at 4 weeks and were sustained for the duration of the trial.

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The results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of fenofibrate in the treatment of type IV/V hyperlipoproteinemia are reported. Ten study centers in the United States recruited 147 adults with a history of type IV or V hyperlipoproteinemia. After a six- to 12-week dietary stabilization period and a four-week placebo period, patients whose 12-hour fasting total plasma triglyceride levels ranged from 350 to 1,500 mg/dl were continued in the study; 55 patients with levels of 350 to 499 mg/dl were placed in group A and 92 with levels of 500 to 1,500 mg/dl in group B.

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To investigate the lipoprotein effect of fenofibrate in hypercholesterolemia or combined hyperlipidemia (types II A and II B hyperlipidemias, respectively), 240 patients were recruited and 227 randomized to a double-blind randomized trial lasting 24 weeks and 192 patients continued to participate in an open-label phase for another 24 weeks. A 100-mg dose of fenofibrate or a matching placebo was given three times daily. Fenofibrate side effects in excess of placebo affected 6 percent of fenofibrate users and were confined almost entirely to skin rashes.

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The effects of fenofibrate on lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins in 33 subjects with primary hypercholesterolemia were assessed in a 6-month parallel group study, placebo (n = 15) versus fenofibrate 300 mg/day (n = 18), followed by an open label 6-month treatment period. After stabilization on an isocaloric low fat (less than 35% total calories) diet with less than 250 mg cholesterol/day and a P/S ratio of 1, and maintenance of LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels greater than or equal to 175 mg/dl, subjects received placebo for 6 weeks and were then randomized into placebo or fenofibrate groups for 6 months, followed by open label treatment for 6 months. During the 6-month double-blind period, compared to the placebo group, the treatment group had significant reductions in total cholesterol, LDL-C, total apo B, and triglyceride, and increments in HDL-cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I and apolipoprotein A-II (P less than 0.

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Of 240 patients with Type IIa and IIb hypercholesterolemia recruited in 11 centers, 227 were randomized to double-blind treatment with either fenofibrate (100 mg three times daily) or matching placebo for 24 weeks. A group of 192 of these patients were studied for a further 24 weeks during which all received fenofibrate in open label fashion. For the 92 Type IIa patients receiving fenofibrate in the double-blind phase, there were significant reductions (p less than 0.

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Our specific aim was to examine the efficacy and safety of long-term cholesterol-lowering diet and bile acid-binding resin therapy in 73 children heterozygous for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). We prospectively followed accretion of height and weight in 40 FH children for 5.8 years on diet alone and in 33 FH children for 4.

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In brief: Fourteen adolescents (eight females and six males) with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) participated in a 12-week exercise program consisting of three 45-minute sessions per week. Exercise consisted of calisthenic warm-up and stretching (ten minutes), aerobic movement to music (25 minutes at 80% V o2 max), and cool-down (ten minutes). The purpose was to determine whether and to what degree such training would bring about changes in blood lipid and lipoprotein profiles in such patients.

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Tracking of high- and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC, LDLC) from childhood to young adulthood was assessed in 77 children and in 53 adults from a single large pedigree with familial hypercholesterolemia who were respectively less than or equal to 19 and greater than or equal to 20 years old when first studied in 1973, with reassessment in 1984. No children and only five of the adults had received LDLC lowering therapy from 1973 to 1984. The rank correlations between the 1973 and 1984 measurements for LDLC were 0.

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Our aim was to determine the effects of the substitution of sucrose polyester (SPE) for dietary fat in a 16-week outpatient study in 36 obese subjects with primary hypercholesterolemia. The subjects were randomized into three groups who followed a 16-week treatment period where all subjects received hypocaloric diets which provided approximately 7 kcal/lb body weight, a polyunsaturated/saturated (P/S) fat ratio of 0.9, and 180 mg cholesterol/day.

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A major limitation of the Collaborative Lipid Research Clinic's Family Study and hence, the Princeton School District's Family Study, was the insufficient data gathering relative to environmental influences, particularly nutrient intake, alcohol intake, smoking, habitual physical activity, recent weight gain and loss, etc. (Laskarzewski 1983c). In addition, inadequacies of quantitation of family history further represented major problem areas (Laskarzewski 1982c).

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To assess associations between current weight, weight at age 18 years, and weight change from age 18 years to ages 30 to 55 years with current levels of plasma cholesterol (C), high- and low-density lipoprotein C (HDLC and LDLC), triglycerides (TG), and systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP), we calculated weight change from self-reported weight at age 18 years and measured weight at ages 30 to 55 years in 308 white and 69 black subjects in a random recall group and 244 whites and 66 blacks in a hyperlipidemic recall group in the Princeton School Study. In random-recall-group whites, mean weight gain over time was greater in men than in women; black women had greater weight gain than black men, and nearly twice the weight gain of white women. Current weight and/or weight gain from age 18 years to ages 30 to 55 years in whites were inversely associated with HDLC level and positively associated with TG level, SBP, and DBP.

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Sucrose polyester (SPE) was studied in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 91 outpatients with primary hypercholesterolemia. All patients maintained an isocaloric diet with cholesterol intake of 400 mg/day and a polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio of 0.8 to 1.

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Using the Princeton School District Family Study cohort, our specific aim was to estimate the prevalence of suspected familial ponderosity and leanness, to provide empirical risk estimates for the proportion of probands' first-degree relatives who were similarly affected, and to estimate the contributions of diseases, drugs and caloric intake to relative obesity and leanness. We studied 379 probands, 125 whites and 52 blacks from a random recall group, 147 whites and 55 blacks from a hyperlipidemic recall group. Suspected familial obesity and leanness were arbitrarily identified in those kindreds with at least two first-degree relatives in the same Quetelet index decile as the proband, top or bottom respectively.

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