Abstract
Omega-3 fatty acids (FA) are frequently used for cardiovascular prevention. However, recently performed clinical trials with 1 g of omega-3 FA daily as well as their meta-analysis did not confirm any cardiovascular benefit.
In REDUCE-IT study, chemically defined and highly purified EPA (ethylester of eicosapentenoic acid) in high dose (4 g daily) was tested in 8,179 patients with hypertriglyceridemia who were also effectively treated with statins. The fraction of 70% of the patients had manifest cardiovascular disease (secondary prevention) and 30% had diabetes mellitus plus other risk factors (primary prevention).
In comparison with placebo, a suprisingly higly significant decrease in the rate of cardiovascular ischemic events including cardiovascular death by 25% (p < 0.001) was observed with EPA.