Pleiotropic beneficial cardiometabolic actions of a high‐purity eicosapentaenoic acid product in high cardiovascular risk individuals

Abstract

The ideal approach to the secondary dyslipidemia goal of lowering triglycerides (TG) is not well established. The available ω‐3 fatty acid products differ from each other in composition and content. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of a highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) formulation on cardiometabolic biomarkers in high cardiovascular (CV) risk patients. The study included 226 subjects with high TG and ≥1 of the following CV risk factors: arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, ultrasound‐documented atheromatosis, peripheral artery disease, previous myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke. Participants received 2 g EPA twice daily for 3 months, along with typical nutritional counseling. Cardiometabolic hematological parameters (TG, low‐density lipoprotein [LDL], high‐density lipoprotein [HDL], non‐HDL, total cholesterol [TChol], apolipoprotein A1 [Apo A1], apolipoprotein B [Apo B], glucose, glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c], and C‐reactive protein [CRP]) were measured at baseline and at 3 months. The mean patients' age was 61.1 ± 1.4 years and the mean baseline TG was 2.97 ± 0.15 mmol/L. Apart from Apo A1, all other biomarkers significantly (p < 0.05) improved at 3 months, regardless of sex (except Apo B) and age: TG 1.75 ± 0.09 versus 2.97 ± 0.15 mmol/L, LDL 2.46 ± 0.08 versus 3.05 ± 0.13 mmol/L, HDL 1.22 ± 0.03 versus 1.11 ± 0.03 mmol/L, non‐HDL 3.29 ± 0.10 versus 4.14 ± 0.16 mmol/L, TChol 4.55 ± 0.10 versus 5.15 ± 0.13 mmol/L, Apo A1 26.8 ± 9.3 versus 22.5 ± 8.6 μmol/L, Apo B 1.25 ± 0.23 versus 1.29 ± 0.23 μmol/L, glucose 5.66 ± 0.11 versus 5.99 ± 0.17 mmol/L, HbA1c 5.83 ± 0.1 versus 5.97 ± 0.1% and CRP 1.92 ± 0.2 versus 5.26 ± 2.8 mg/L. In conclusion, adding highly purified EPA product (4 g daily) on nutritional counseling leads to a significant TG reduction. In addition, this treatment appears to have pleiotropic beneficial cardiometabolic actions.