Aggressively Lowering Cholesterol Benefits Bypass Patients in Study
From Times staff and wire reports
Aggressively lowering cholesterol in people who have had bypass operations can help prevent their arteries from reclogging, according to a multicenter study. About 400,000 Americans have bypasses each year to reroute blood around clogged heart arteries, but the patients often need repeat surgery when the arteries clog up again.
In a study of 1,351 patients who had undergone bypasses, half received very aggressive treatment to reduce cholesterol and half received only moderate treatment. In five years of follow-up, the team reported in the Jan. 16 New England Journal of Medicine, only 27% of those in the aggressively treated group suffered reclogging, compared to 39% of those in the moderate group.
