Heart, a breakthrough from research: 36% lower risk of first heart attack by attacking 'bad' cholesterol

Reducing the risk of a first heart attack by 36% is now possible: this is one of the main findings of the international Vesalius-CV study, presented at the 57th National Congress of the National Association of Hospital Cardiologists - Anmco currently underway in Rimini. A result that marks a concrete change in the approach to cardiovascular disease, because it shows that intervening when the risk is already very high, even without events, significantly reduces the risk of major events.

This evidence comes in a country, Italia, where diseases of the circulatory system remain the leading cause of death, with more than 220,000 deaths recorded in 2022, out of a total of more than 720,000 deaths in the same year. This is an important burden that requires us to rethink the way we tackle cardiovascular risk, adopting a more intensive and targeted approach from the outset.

Until now, the orientation in clinical practice has been to focus on therapeutic intervention after an acute event. Today we have a new awareness. Cardiovascular risk builds up over the years, often silently and without recognisable signs, while the disease is already in progress. This means that we have an important time window in which we can act. We are facing a fundamental paradigm shift for modern cardiology and for the way we have to care for patients.

The Vesalius-CV study involved more than 12,000 patients followed for more than four years, all of whom had a high or very high cardiovascular risk and no previous clinical events. The results show that significantly reducing LDL-cholesterol, which is considered one of the direct causative factors of atherosclerosis, results in a real decrease in major cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke.

The most relevant figure is precisely the reduction in the risk of a first cardiovascular event that is achieved through the use of evolocuamb: this can translate into a significant impact on the health of the population and on people's actual lives. It means avoiding a heart attack, a stroke or a complication that can leave permanent consequences. The novelty is that we can intervene at a stage when the patient has not yet had any events, but is already exposed to a high risk.