BACKGROUND: Triglyceride levels were found to be independently predictive of the development of primary coronary heart disease in epidemiologic studies. The objective of this study was to determine whether triglyceride levels were predictive of cardiovascular events in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of lipid-modifying drugs. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-regression analysis of 40 RCTs of lipid-modifying drugs with cardiovascular events as an outcome. The log of the rate ratio of cardiovascular events (eg, coronary death or myocardial infarction) was plotted against the proportional difference between treatment and control groups in triglyceride and other lipid levels (high density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], low density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], and total cholesterol) for all trials and for trials of primary and secondary prevention populations. Linear regression was used to determine the statistical significance of the relationship between lipid values and cardiovascular events. RESULTS: The proportional difference in triglyceride levels was predictive of cardiovascular events in all trials (P=0.005 for the slope of the regression line; N=40) and in primary prevention trials (P=0.010; N=11), but not in secondary prevention trials (P=0.114; N=25). The proportional difference in HDL-C was not predictive of cardiovascular events in all trials (P=0.822; N=40), or in trials of primary (P=0.223; N=11) or secondary (P=0.487; N=25) prevention. LDL-C levels were predictive of cardiovascular events in both primary (P=0.002; N=11) and secondary (P<0.001; N=25) populations. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in triglyceride levels were predictive of cardiovascular events in RCTs. This relationship was significant in primary prevention populations but not in secondary prevention populations.
Cardiovascular Diseases/prevention & control , Dyslipidemias/drug therapy , Hypolipidemic Agents/therapeutic use , Primary Prevention/methods , Triglycerides/blood , Biomarkers/blood , Cardiovascular Diseases/blood , Cardiovascular Diseases/diagnosis , Cardiovascular Diseases/mortality , Cholesterol, HDL/blood , Cholesterol, LDL/blood , Dyslipidemias/blood , Dyslipidemias/diagnosis , Dyslipidemias/mortality , Humans , Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic , Risk Assessment , Risk Factors , Secondary Prevention/methods , Treatment Outcome
BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Fractures in elderly populations result from the combination of falls and osteoporosis. We report a systematic review of studies indexed in PubMed reporting annual rates of low-trauma falls and associated osteoporotic fractures among older community-dwelling people (age ≥ 50 years). An osteoporotic fracture was defined as either a fracture resulting from a low-impact fall in subjects with clinical osteoporosis, a fall resulting in an investigator-defined osteoporotic fracture, or a fall resulting in a low-trauma fracture. Rates are presented using descriptive statistics. Meta-analysis was conducted for statistically homogeneous data sets. RESULTS: The median (range) annual fall prevalence rates (median proportion of people who experienced one or more falls during the past year) for cohorts of women and men (10 determinations), women alone (seven determinations), and men alone (four determinations) were, respectively, 0.334 (0.217-0.625), 0.460 (0.372-0.517), and 0.349 (0.284-0.526). In studies that reported fall prevalence rates for Western men and women separately (four determinations), the pooled risk ratio (95% confidence interval [CI]) for men versus women was 0.805 (95% CI 0.721-0.900). The ranges of fall prevalence rates in East Asian women (two studies) and East Asian men (two studies) were, respectively, 0.163-0.258 and 0.087-0.184. The risk ratio (95% CI) for fall prevalence in East Asian men versus women was 0.634 (0.479-0.838) in studies (two determinations) reporting results for East Asian men and women separately. In cohorts of Western women and men (five determinations), the pooled rate (95% CI) of low-impact falls resulting in fractures was 0.041 (0.031-0.054). The proportion of low-trauma fractures attributable to falls among the Western community-dwelling elderly was within the range of 0.860-0.950 for fractures at all sites or the hip (five determinations). A range of 0.716-0.924 of all fractures were osteoporotic (eight determinations). CONCLUSION: Fall rates are higher in women than in men in Western community-dwelling populations and lower in East Asian populations. Extrapolated to the US population, the statistics imply that low-impact falls cause approximately 0.53 million osteoporotic fractures annually among the US community-dwelling elderly.
