eLearning in less than 60 minutes

Changes/additions to materials:

MeReC Stop Press on NICE Clinical Guideline 67. 

NICE issued guidance on CV risk assessment and lipid modification in June 2008. The important changes are discussed in the MeReC Stop Press, which should be read in conjunction with the materials in this room of NPCi.

MHRA advice re fibrates - Drug Safety Update Vol 1, Issue 4. 4th. November 2007

The MHRA has issued revised advice to prescribers concerning the place in therapy of fibrates:
"Fibrates should be used as first-line therapy only in patients with isolated severe hypertriglyceridaemia. In patients who also have raised cholesterol, fibrates may be considered only when a statin or other effective treatments are contraindicated or not tolerated".

This is discussed in a MeReC Stop Press, which should be read in conjunction with the materials in this room of NPCi.

Note that some of the materials apply the black triangle (▼) to rosuvastatin. This was correct at their time of publication but the black triangle was removed by the MHRA in June 2007

A guide to the support materials for this topic is available in the library.

In this room you will find a series of workshops using a multimedia presentation of PowerPoint slides with audio commentary by the NPC team. You will need speakers and a sound card in your computer.

Each section lasts around 10 minutes with an outline of the content given below. Simply click on one of the underlined links and then click on the play icon to begin. You can jump forwards to skip a slide or backwards to repeat a slide by clicking the relevant slide on the left hand side of the console.

Workshop 1 - Introduction and background (11 min 18secs)

• Relationship between cholesterol and CV risk
• The Heart Protection Study

Workshop 2 - The evidence for different statins and different doses (6min 15secs)

• The 'CURVES' Study
• The CTT meta-analysis

Workshop 3 - High dose statin vs 'standard' doses (11min 16secs)

• Commentary on A-Z, PROVE-IT, TNT, IDEAL and SPARCL

Workshop 4 - Choice of statin in individuals (9min 54secs)

• Which statin is first-line?
• Safety issues in certain patient groups
• Role of the fibrates, rosuvastatin and ezetimibe

Workshop 5 - Implementing the NICE guidance in practice (12min 33secs)

• The evidence in the context of National Policy