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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A fatty mid-section can be a red flag for metabolic syndrome -- a group of metabolic risk factors that puts a person at increased risk for coronary heart disease and plaque build-up in artery walls.
Abdominal obesity amplifies the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease -- the hardening of the arteries that happens when deposits of plaque accumulate in the inner lining of the arteries. But a recent study comparing the use of the weight loss drug, rimonabant (Acomplia) with placebo in patients with coronary artery disease found mixed results.
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The Cleveland Clinic study included 839 patients at 112 centers in North America, Europe and Australia. The patients either received rimonabant or a placebo for 18 to 20 months. The patients were assessed at three, six, 12 and 18 months. Researchers focused on two different measurements of plaque build up in an artery: PAV -- percent atheroma volume -- and TAV -- total atheroma volume.
Researchers report PAV increased 0.25 percent in patients on rimonabant and 0.51 percent in those on placebo. They found TAV decreased twice as much in patients on rimonabant. The patients on the drug also lost more weight, however psychiatric side effects like anxiety and depression were more common in the group on the drug.
Study authors call the results mixed because the PAV difference was not considered significant, but the TAV was a significant improvement. They write additional studies will be required to further define the role of rimonabant in the treatment of abdominally obese patients with coronary disease and metabolic risk factors.
Rimonabant is available in other countries, but not FDA approved in the United States -- is being studied in many clinical trials.
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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;299:13; presented at the annual conference of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago, March 29 - April 1, 2008
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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