Heart drugs help low-risk patients

Researchers have questioned whether Australian guidelines should be changed to allow more people access to cholesterol-lowering drugs. Source: The Courier-Mail

HALF of all heart attacks occur in patients with a low cardiovascular risk, and a study has shown the risk of these events is reduced when patients take drugs to lower cholesterol.

Researchers from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) at the University of Sydney, have questioned whether Australian guidelines should be changed to allow more people access to cholesterol-lowering drugs.

NHMRC deputy director Anthony Keech and research fellow Jordan Fulcher said the safest option to lower bad cholesterol levels was to eat well, exercise and lose weight if necessary.

But there was also a role for cholesterol drugs, they wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.

However, expanding the use of the drugs to low-risk people could come at a significant cost.

The two main cholesterol drugs were in the top three most dispensed Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medications in the 2010/11 financial year, the article said.

Drugs targeting cholesterol were the most costly class of medication in the PBS.

But the authors said there was now evidence that cholesterol-lowering drugs could help treat people at low risk of heart disease.

"This new evidence must be urgently considered, with appropriate economic analyses, for incorporation into clinical and PBS guidelines," they wrote.

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Heart drugs help low-risk patients