%0 Journal Article %T The effects of additional ezetimibe treatment to baseline rosuvastatin on circulating PCSK9 among patients with stable angina %A Zhang, Jian %A Long, Mingzhi %A Yu, Yichao %J Journal of Thoracic Disease %D 2017 %B 2017 %9 %! The effects of additional ezetimibe treatment to baseline rosuvastatin on circulating PCSK9 among patients with stable angina %K %X Background: Blood lipid management is one of the effective strategies for coronary heart disease, and statins are the first-line lipid-lowering drugs. Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) drop brings about cardioprotective effects. Proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is known to increase LDL-C, thus hazarding LDL-C reduction-induced benefits. To date, how PCSK9 responds to various lipid-lowering strategies has not been fully clarified. Methods: This study involves patients with stable angina and aims to explore and clarify the short-term impacts of rosuvastatin and ezetimibe, alone or in combination, on circulating PCSK9. A total of 68 patients with stable angina were enrolled and 60 eligible patients were randomly assigned into 3 groups (20 subjects in each). Patients in different groups were treated for a period of 14 days with rosuvastatin 10 mg/d, ezetimibe 10 mg/d, and rosuvastatin 10 mg/d plus ezetimibe 10 mg/d, respectively. Concentrations of blood LDL-C and PCSK9 levels were measured at baseline and at the 14 th day after treatment. Results: Both rosuvastatin and ezetimibe could reduce the LDL-C levels, and rosuvastatin displayed a stronger cholesterol-lowering effect than ezetimibe. Moreover, when combined, they yielded even greater efficacy in lowering LDL-C, as compared with either rosuvastatin or ezetimibe mono-treatment (P th day, no difference in PCKS9 levels was observed between the rosuvastatin group and the combination-therapy group (P=0.906). Conclusions: Rosuvastatin plus ezetimibe therapy is more effective in reducing LDL-C levels as compared with either rosuvastatin or ezetimibe mono-medication. Meanwhile, such combination strategy does not further increase the levels of circulating PCSK9 compared to rosuvastatin mono-intervention, thus maintaining maximal clinical benefits from lipid-lowering. %U https://jtd.amegroups.org/article/view/13296 %V 9 %N 5 %P 1226-1233 %@ 2077-6624