Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Statin Monotherapy and Statin plus Ezetimibe Combination in a Real-World Setting

Background: The objective of this study was to conduct a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of ezetimibe in combination with statins or statin monotherapy in patients with hypercholesterolemia in a real-world setting. Methods: It was a retrospective multicenter observational study conducted in Russia. We included patients who received statins or a combination of statins with ezetimibe for ≥3 months. The primary endpoint of this study was the frequency of achieving low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goal levels at the time of enrollment in the study (%). Results: The full analysis set consisted of 1000 patients: 250 subjects in the statin monotherapy group and 750 subjects in the combination group. The groups did not differ in clinical, demographic, or laboratory variables, except for a higher prevalence of hypertension and higher baseline lipid values in the statin monotherapy group. During treatment, the LDL-C concentration decreased by 1.10 ± 1.04 mmol/L (change of −27.5 ± 28.5% from baseline) in the statin monotherapy group and by 1.55 ± 1.17 mmol/L (change of −38.2 ± 25.6% from baseline) in the combination therapy group, p < 0.001. The target LDL-C level was achieved in 22.4% of the patients in the monotherapy group compared with 28.8% of the patients in the combination therapy group, p = 0.049. Conclusions: In real-world clinical practice, statin/ezetimibe combination therapy demonstrated a more frequent achievement of target LDL-C levels compared with statin monotherapy. The addition of ezetimibe to statin therapy increased the probability of achieving LDL-C level goals by 29%.