Abstract
We appreciate the interest that Kostapanos et al has shown in our study “Effect of atorvastatin monotherapy and low-dose atorvastatin/ezetimibe combination on fasting and postprandial triglycerides (TGs) in combined hyperlipidemia.” 1 In this letter, we provide the following clarification on their original comments.
A question was raised concerning whether the lowering of TGs was higher in the upper tertile groups of TG than that in the lower tertile groups. We grouped the study patients according to tertiles of baseline fasting or postprandial TG and examined the relationship using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests. In all the patients who completed the study using either regimen (n = 60), upper (P = 0.01) and middle (P = 0.002) tertile groups of baseline fasting TG were associated with high fasting TG lowering compared to lower tertile group. Similar positive correlations between baseline levels and percentage changes were also exhibited in the analysis of postprandial TGs (P = 0.03 between the upper and lower tertile groups; P = .007 between middle and lower tertile groups). In an analysis of patients receiving low-dose atorvastatin/ezetimibe combination, we found that uper tertile groups of baseline postprandial TG showed high reduction in the value (P = .004 between upper and lower tertile groups; P = .02 between middle and lower tertile groups). With regard to fasting TG, the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. Our results concerning the influence of baseline TG on TG-lowering efficacy were in accordance with the report by Gazi et al. 2
In summary, TG lowering was higher in upper tertile groups of baseline TG levels than that in lower tertile group. In addition, this was true for the group that received a combination of atorvastatin/ezetimibe.