Papers by Elizabeth Lawler
Circulation. Cardiovascular interventions, 2012
Current guidelines recommend combining clopidogrel with aspirin for up to 1 year after coronary s... more Current guidelines recommend combining clopidogrel with aspirin for up to 1 year after coronary stenting, but the value of clopidogrel beyond this time is uncertain. We evaluated all patients in the Veterans Administration healthcare system receiving either drug-eluting or bare metal stents from 2002 to 2006. The Veterans Administration National Patient Care and Pharmacy databases were used to extract patient characteristics, duration of clopidogrel use, and outcomes for up to 4 years after the index procedure. We used Cox proportional hazards to estimate hazard ratios for death, myocardial infarction, revascularization, and bleeding from a 12-month landmark after stenting that excluded patients with events within the first 12 months. Of 42,254 patients, 29,175 met the study inclusion criteria. Compared with ≤12 months of clopidogrel, prolonged clopidogrel (>12 months) was associated with a lower adjusted risk of death for both drug-eluting stents (hazard ratio [HR], 0.70; 95% co...
BMJ, 2010
Objective To investigate whether angiotensin receptor blockers protect against Alzheimer's diseas... more Objective To investigate whether angiotensin receptor blockers protect against Alzheimer's disease and dementia or reduce the progression of both diseases. Design Prospective cohort analysis. Setting Administrative database of the US Veteran Affairs, 2002-6. Population 819 491 predominantly male participants (98%) aged 65 or more with cardiovascular disease. Main outcome measures Time to incident Alzheimer's disease or dementia in three cohorts (angiotensin receptor blockers, lisinopril, and other cardiovascular drugs, the "cardiovascular comparator") over a four year period (fiscal years 2003-6) using Cox proportional hazard models with adjustments for age, diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Disease progression was the time to admission to a nursing home or death among participants with pre-existing Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Results Hazard rates for incident dementia in the angiotensin receptor blocker group were 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.69 to 0.84) compared with the cardiovascular comparator and 0.81 (0.73 to 0.90) compared with the lisinopril group. Compared with the cardiovascular comparator, angiotensin receptor blockers in patients with pre-existing Alzheimer's disease were associated with a significantly lower risk of admission to a nursing home (0.51, 0.36 to 0.72) and death (0.83, 0.71 to 0.97). Angiotensin receptor blockers exhibited a dose-response as well as additive effects in combination with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. This combination compared with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors alone was associated with a reduced risk of incident dementia (0.54, 0.51 to 0.57) and admission to a nursing home (0.33, 0.22 to 0.49). Minor differences were shown in mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures between the groups. Similar results were observed for Alzheimer's disease. Conclusions Angiotensin receptor blockers are associated with a significant reduction in the incidence and progression of Alzheimer's disease and dementia compared with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or other cardiovascular drugs in a predominantly male population.
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2005
Background: Whether statins reduce the risk of fractures is still contested. Several studies supp... more Background: Whether statins reduce the risk of fractures is still contested. Several studies support a favorable association, whereas post hoc analyses of statinrandomized trials have failed to find a benefit. We sought to assess this possible relationship in a large population of elderly, predominantly male veterans. Methods: We established the study population using all health care encounters and services from patients who received care in the New England Veterans Affairs health care system between January 1998 and June 2001. According to evidence from the literature, covariates that would affect the risk of fractures were included in the final model, as were medications that were clinically meaningful and significant in univariate models and the Charlson Comorbidity Index as a surrogate for general health. We also conducted a similar analysis among new statin users. We used pooled logistic regression to assess for significant associations. Results: Of the 91 052 patients in the final cohort, 28 063 were prescribed statins and 2195 were prescribed nonstatin lipid-lowering medications. In the adjusted analyses, statin use was associated with a 36% (odds ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.58-0.72) reduction in fracture risk when compared with no lipid-lowering therapy and a 32% (odds ratio, 0.67; 95% confidence interval, 0.50-0.91) reduction when compared with nonstatin lipidlowering therapy. Similar findings were found for the new statin user group. We have provided yet another study in a unique population of mostly male veterans that found a significant reduction in fractures among statin users. More studies need to be performed to confirm or refute our findings.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005
The authors studied the effect of the quality of care received by 372 community-dwelling vulnerab... more The authors studied the effect of the quality of care received by 372 community-dwelling vulnerable older patients on their survival over the next 3 years. Three-year survival improved steadily as the quality score improved. Better performance on process quality measures is strongly associated with better survival in vulnerable older adults. (282)(283)(284)(285)(286)(287)(288)(289)(290)(291)(292)
Journal of Personalized Medicine, 2012
HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, commonly known as statins, are some of the most widely prescribed m... more HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, commonly known as statins, are some of the most widely prescribed medications worldwide and have been shown to be effective at lowering cholesterol in numerous long-term prospective trials, yet there are significant limitations to their use. First, patients receiving statin therapy have relatively low levels of medication adherence compared with other drug classes. Next, numerous statin formulations are available, each with its own unique safety and efficacy profile, and it may be unclear to prescribers which treatment is optimal for their patients. Finally, statins have class-wide side effects of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis that have resulted in a product recall and dosage limitations. Recent evidence suggests that two genomic markers, KIF6 and SLCO1B1, may inform the therapy choice of patients initiating statins. Given the prevalence of statin usage, their potential health advantages and their overall cost to the healthcare system, there could be significant clinical benefit from creating personalized treatment regimens. Ultimately, if this approach is effective it may encourage higher
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Papers by Elizabeth Lawler