Conditions: High Cholesterol Coronary Artery Disease
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 2
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Response to statin therapy for elevated low density lipoprotein is variable and may be influenced by cholesterol absorption. This study will evaluate whether combination therapy with atorvastatin/ezetimibe will be superior to atorvastatin alone in subjects who have less than 25% LDL reduction on starting dose statin (eg, atorvastatin 10 mg daily or simvastatin 20 mg daily).

Detailed description:
Specific Aim 1 To identify a patient population seen in the University of California, San Diego general internal medicine and cardiology subspecialty clinics as well as referrals from community physicians who are hyporesponsive to statin therapy (defined as an initial LDL reduction of \<25% in response to 10mg of atorvastatin or 20mg of simvastatin- expected mean reduction is 35% -37% for starting dose simvastatin and atorvastatin).

Specific Aim 2 To test the hypothesis, with a prospective study, that a hyporesponse to statin therapy may be related to increased cholesterol absorption, and that this hyporesponse may be overcome by the addition of ezetimibe, a specific cholesterol absorption inhibitor.

Specific Aim 3 To evaluate whether patients with less than 25% LDL reduction on 10 mg of atorvastatin (or 20 mg of simvastatin) would achieve significantly greater LDL reduction with combination therapy (atorvastatin/ezetimibe) than with statin dose titration (using atorvastatin).

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None

Interventions: intervention 1: Ezetimibe intervention 2: Atorvastatin
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 10 mg intervention 2: Visit 1: (atorvastatin open label challenge): Those who complete the initial screening and washout period will receive open label atorvastatin 10 mg daily for 6 weeks to verify compliance and confirm hyporesponse to statin therapy.

Visit 2: After 6 weeks of therapy repeat baseline fasting cholesterol. Those with LDL-c reduction of 25% or less will be able to proceed to next phase. Patients with greater than 25% LDL-C reduction will be excluded. We expect to randomize 80 patients

Visit 2a: Dispensing of first randomized drug allocation- all patients receive open label atorvastatin 10 mg with additional ezetimibe 10 mg or matching placebo. No blood test during this visit.

Visit 3, 4, 5: Dose titration to atorvastatin to 20 mg, 40 mg, 80 mg, respectively, after fasting blood test

Blood collected in visits 3, 4, and 5 will be stored for additional tests regarding cholesterol metabolism and inflammation.

Visit 6: Final cholesterol panel and conclusion of study period

Protocol document: