Ezetimibe Monotherapy Reduces Serum Levels of Platelet-Activating Factor Acetylhydrolase in Patients With Dyslipidemia

BACKGROUND: The combination of ezetimibe with statin therapy reduced cardiovascular events compared to statin monotherapy in IMPROVEIT study, and ezetimibe monotherapy attenuated atherosclerosis in basic study. We previously showed ezetimibe monotherapy was especially effective for metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients. We investigated the effects of ezetimibe monotherapy for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-chol) function and platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) activity. METHODS: Forty-two patients who initially received ezetimibe (10 mg/day) without statin treatment for 16 weeks from January 2009 to August 2011 were enrolled. Patients were divided into MetS and non-MetS groups, and serum levels of lipids, PAF-AH, and HDL-chol efflux capacity (HDL-CEC) at baseline and after 16 weeks of treatment were investigated. Serum PAF-AH, HDL-associated PAF-AH (HDL-PAF-AH), and LDL-associated PAF-AH (LDL-PAF-AH) were measured. RESULTS: In all patients, age, the percentages of males, and body mass index were 61.0 ± 8.8 years, 59.5% and 26.3 ± 3.4 kg/m(2), respectively. Total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-chol) were significantly decreased by ezetimibe monotherapy. Serum PAF-AH and LDL-PAF-AH were significantly decreased by ezetimibe monotherapy, whereas HDL-PAF-AH and HDL-CEC were not. There was no difference in the results of PAF-AH and HDL-CEC between MetS and non-MetS groups. CONCLUSIONS: Ezetimibe monotherapy might prevent coronary heart disease (CHD) regardless of the presence of MetS, because PAF-AH was independent risk factor for CHD.