Anthony Wierzbicki Articles
The LDL frontier: what else do we need to know?
Prof. Anthony Wierzbicki, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London UK discusses knowledge and questions about very low LDL cholesterol levels. With the advent of the PCSK9 inhibitors very low LDL cholesterol levels – less than 30 mg/dL or 0.78 mmol/L- are now a clinical reality….
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ODYSSEY OUTCOMES: impact on hospitalisation
Prof. Anthony Wierzbicki, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK discusses this analysis evaluating the impact of PCSK9 inhibition on hospitalisation following ACS. Most cardiovascular outcomes studies involving lipid-lowering treatment in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) focus on the time to first occurrence of…
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Lipoprotein(a) – does it matter when LDL cholesterol is low?
Lipoprotein(a) is now recognised as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. But is it also relevant to consider lipoprotein(a) when LDL cholesterol is low? Prof. Anthony S Wierzbicki, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK discusses the evidence. Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a well-characterised biomarker…
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PSCK9 inhibitor therapy- after the clinical trials, what can we learn to improve practice?
The major cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes trials with the antibody-based inhibitors of proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) have now been completed. Both ODYSSEY Outcomes with alirocumab in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and FOURIER with evolocumab in patients with stable CVD, were…
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Is a PCSK9 vaccine a possibility for the future?
PCSK9 Forum has previously reported on preliminary experimental data for a PCSK9 vaccine. A recent publication in The European Heart Journal provides more details, albeit in an experimental preclinical model. Researchers used the APOE*3Leiden.CETP mouse model, a well-established, translational mouse model for hyperlipidaemia and atherosclerosis,…
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Will CANTOS and REVEAL change how we view the clinical use of PCSK9 inhibitors?
Prof Anthony Wierzbicki, New Associate Editor of PCSK9 Forum discusses Atherosclerosis has long been recognised as a chronic inflammatory disease, where low-density lipoproteins (LDL) interact with both innate and adaptive immunity mechanisms. However, while inflammatory infiltration by circulating white blood cells is an important part…
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Back to basics on cost-effectiveness
Professor Anthony Wierzbicki (Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK) provides a back to basics on cost-effectiveness analyses. Specifically, he highlights the uses and abuses of cost-effectiveness and quality-adjusted life year analyses in determining access to novel treatments. One of the key questions in cost-effectiveness…
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Countdown to FOURIER: What are the implications for patients?
Countdown to FOURIER: What are the implications for patients? PCSK9 Forum Editor Professor Anthony Wierzbicki gives his view.
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Looking to FOURIER: What do the trials tell us about LDL lowering and cardiovascular events?
Presentation of full results from the FOURIER cardiovascular outcomes trial with the PCSK9 monoclonal antibody evolocumab is imminent. Here, PCSK9 Forum Editor Professor Anthony Wierzbicki (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London UK) looks back over more than 25 years of trials of LDL…
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Anthony Wierzbicki, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London discusses the implications of key trials at AHA 2016
Anthony Wierzbicki, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London discusses the implications of key trials at AHA 2016 GLAGOV ORION
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Heart UK statement on homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia places PCSK9 inhibitors as second‑line treatment
Although homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH, inherited high cholesterol) is rare, the severity of the condition underlines the need for an aggressive approach to management. This statement from Heart UK has weighed up the evidence for all three treatment modalities – pharmacotherapy, lipoprotein apheresis and liver…
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PCSK9 inhibitors: Who and when to treat?
Professor Tony Wierzbicki (Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK) discusses considerations for the use of PCSK9 inhibitors from a policy maker perspective (NICE, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK). He raises issues about the data for each high risk patient…
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Premium quality or just over-priced? How affordable are the PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies?
Anthony Wierzbicki, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London discusses recent economic analyses from the US and UK. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains one of the commonest causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. The epidemiology of CVD is changing as rates of smoking decrease but…
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PCSK9 therapy- the solution to all cardiovascular disease?
Prof. Anthony S Wierzbicki, Department of Metabolic Medicine/Chemical Pathology, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK discusses evidence from a number of meta-analyses of PCSK9 inhibitor treatment. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has multiple manifestations in different vascular beds and is driven by multiple CVD risk factors….
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Lifetime exposure and primordial prevention
Atherosclerosis is a slow onset insidious disease. It is asymptomatic until its manifestations cause significant morbidity and mortality. There is no cheap easy way to detect it. As a result disease management strategies rely on epidemiologically-based risk calculators to identify individuals likely to have significant…
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Enhancing and Improving cardiovascular outcomes
Implications from IMPROVE-IT: Perspective from Anthony S. Wierzbicki* The link between low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is well established 1 2 . Statins are the first-line drug therapy for the treatment of lipid-associated CVD risk. However the role of second line therapies…
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IMPROVE-IT: will it prove anything?
Professor Anthony S. Wierzbicki, London UK Comments on the IMPROVE-IT debate Cardiovascular disease (CVD) guidelines are emphasising the use of clinical outcome data on major vascular events (American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology)1 or hard CVD events alone (UK NICE)2 . They have begun to…
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What does PCSK9 monoclonal antibody therapy offer to reduce residual CV risk?
Anthony S. Wierzbicki DM, DPhil, FRCPath Consultant, Department of Metabolic Medicine/Chemical Pathology Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals St Thomas’ Hospital, London UK E-mail: [email protected] Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the greatest cause of world morbidity and mortality. Rates of CVD have decreased in parallel with reductions…
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