President of cardiologists: “Bad cholesterol among the first enemies of the heart”

“‘Bad’ cholesterol is the main risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, so lowering or halving LDL cholesterol levels means reducing the likelihood of fatal and non-fatal ischemic events for our patients. To do this today we have a ” more weapon: we can in fact count on a parent molecule of a new class of highly innovative drugs that directly target the root of atherosclerotic disease rather than its symptoms, thanks to a mechanism of action that allows to reduce LDL cholesterol levels or ‘harmful’ in an effective and prolonged manner “. Thus Pasquale Perrone Filardi, president-elect of the Italian Society of Cardiology (Sic), in his speech at the press conference organized in Rome by Novartis Italia to announce the approval by Aifa of the new biological drug inclisiran, now available and reimbursable also in our Village. “Myocardial infarction – explains Perrone Filardi – is strongly correlated to high cholesterol levels, but the same is true for ischemic stroke or other pathologies affecting our arterial system. So reducing cholesterol means protecting the entire arterial vascular system. of our organism and, consequently, limit the events that unfortunately in some cases can even be fatal. But it is good to know that each person has his or her ideal cholesterol value based on the individual cardiovascular risk profile “. In Italy every year “220 thousand people die from cardiovascular diseases, an impressive figure – highlights Perrone Filardi – which constitutes almost 40% of the total mortality in our country”. For the elected president of cardiologists, it is also important to underline a “gender difference in mortality from cardiovascular disease: in women – points out the president-elect of Sic – this represents 39%, in men it is around 33%. This is indicative of the fact that in women there is less attention to the problem of cardiovascular prevention because they are more concentrated on other aspects linked to femininity and menopause. But especially after menopause, the main enemy of women is represented by cardiovascular diseases “. Cholesterol, therefore, has a “central role in cardiovascular prevention – concludes Perrone Filardi – and we have learned a lot from research. Scientific evidence tells us that reducing cholesterol to extremely low levels that until a few years ago we did not imagine to reach protects against cardiovascular diseases. There is an unavoidable rule in any context: if we drop below 40 mg / dl of the Ldl levels, we know with mathematical certainty that our probability of having an ischemic cardiovascular event is lowered by 20% “.