Lipid-lowering therapy is effective in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in people with PAD .
It may also improve local symptoms .
Until further evidence on the relative effectiveness of different lipid-lowering agents is available , use of a statin in people with PAD and a blood cholesterol level > /=3.5 mmol/litre is most indicated
BACKGROUND Lipid-lowering therapy is recommended for secondary prevention in people with coronary artery disease .
It may also reduce cardiovascular events and /or local disease progression in people with lower limb peripheral arterial disease ( PAD ) .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of lipid-lowering therapy on all-cause mortality , cardiovascular events and local disease progression in patients with PAD of the lower limb .
Increased plasma levels of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) after n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation in patients with chronic atherosclerotic disease.
This double-blind , r and omised , controlled study examined the effect of a daily dosage of 3 g n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ( n-3 PUFA ) on plasma lipids and some haemostatic factors in 40 patients with chronic atherosclerotic diseases .  Serum lipids , factor VII , tissue factor pathway inhibitor ( TFPI ) and prothrombin activation fragment 1 + 2 ( F1 + 2 ) were measured at baseline and after 2 , 8 , and 16-week supplementation of either n-3 PUFA or corn oil . Administration of n-3 PUFA promptly lowered serum triglycerides and increased LDL-cholesterol ( -32 % and + 33 % , respectively , after 2 weeks of treatment ) while a significant increase ( + 31 % ) in HDL-cholesterol was documented at the end of the observation period . Treatment with n-3 PUFA induced a progressive significant increase of TFPI plasma levels ( + 21 % after 16 weeks ; p = 0.029 ) . TFPI activity was significantly correlated with LDL-cholesterol , and multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that LDL-cholesterol was the most important predictor of TFPI activity . Plasma levels of the inhibitor showed also a very high parallelism in their trend over time ( ANOVA model for homogeneity of slopes ) with both HDL-cholesterol ( p = 0.82 ) and LDL-cholesterol ( p = 0.67 ) . Patients treated with n-PUFA also showed a significant reduction of F1 + 2 plasma levels ( p = 0.016 ) while no significant changes were detected in plasma factor VII clotting activity . Lipid and haemostatic parameters were not modified at any study time in patients receiving corn oil as placebo . The results of this study confirm the effects of n-3 PUFA administration on plasma lipids and show that in patients with chronic atherosclerotic disease a 16-week supplementation with these compounds induces a small but statistically significant increase of TFPI plasma levels with a parallel down-regulation of the extrinsic pathway of blood coagulation which may be relevant to the antithrombotic activity of fish diet and fish oil derivatives
Lipid-lowering therapy is effective in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in people with PAD .
It may also improve local symptoms .
Until further evidence on the relative effectiveness of different lipid-lowering agents is available , use of a statin in people with PAD and a blood cholesterol level > /=3.5 mmol/litre is most indicated
BACKGROUND Lipid-lowering therapy is recommended for secondary prevention in people with coronary artery disease .
It may also reduce cardiovascular events and /or local disease progression in people with lower limb peripheral arterial disease ( PAD ) .
OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of lipid-lowering therapy on all-cause mortality , cardiovascular events and local disease progression in patients with PAD of the lower limb .