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Impact of combined lipid lowering with blood pressure control on coronary plaque regression: rationale and design of MILLION study

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Abstract

A line of epidemiological studies suggests that the accumulation of coronary risk factors promotes the progression of coronary atherosclerosis. Recent clinical studies showed that aggressive low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol-lowering therapy using statins could regress coronary atheroma and reduce major cardiovascular events. Additionally, therapy that controlled amlodipine-based blood pressure reduced major cardiovascular events in patients with hypertension compared with an atenolol-based regimen. An open-label randomized multicenter study is primarily planned to evaluate the changes in coronary atheroma volume using intravascular ultrasonography 18–24 months after intensive lowering of LDL-cholesterol and blood pressure compared with a standard therapy indicated by current guidelines in Japanese patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The secondary endpoints include changes in serum lipid levels, inflammatory markers, glucose markers and blood pressure. In total, 100 subjects with CAD who are undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention will be tested. The MILLION study will provide new evidence and therapeutic standards for the prevention of CAD in Japanese patients by controlling both LDL-C levels and blood pressure.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Yamagishi got a research grant from Pfizer Ltd.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa, 920-8641, Japan

    Masa-aki Kawashiri, Kenji Sakata, Tadatsugu Gamou, Hayato Tada, Katsuharu Uchiyama, Tetsuo Konno, Kenshi Hayashi, Hidekazu Ino & Masakazu Yamagishi

  2. Department of Cardiology, Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Honin Kanaya & Kenji Miwa

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Komatsu Municipal Hospital, Komatsu, Japan

    Kosei Ueda & Toshinori Higashikata

  4. Department of Cardiology, Fukui Cardiovascular Center, Fukui, Japan

    Sumio Mizuno

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Yokohama Sakae Kyosai Hospital, Yokohama, Japan

    Ichiro Michishita

  6. Department of Cardiology, Kanazawa Cardiovascular Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Masanobu Namura

  7. Department of Cardiology, Toyama Red Cross Hospital, Toyama, Japan

    Yutaka Nitta & Shoji Katsuda

  8. Department of Cardiology, Koseiren Takaoka Hospital, Takaoka, Japan

    Kazuyasu Okeie

  9. Department of Internal Medicine, Takaoka Municipal Hospital, Takaoka, Japan

    Hiroaki Hirase

  10. Division of Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, Kanazawa, Japan

    Keisuke Nagase

  11. Cardiovascular Imaging Center, Toyohashi, Japan

    Mitsuyasu Terashima

Authors
  1. Masa-aki Kawashiri
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  2. Kenji Sakata
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  3. Tadatsugu Gamou
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  4. Honin Kanaya
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  5. Kenji Miwa
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  6. Kosei Ueda
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  7. Toshinori Higashikata
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  8. Sumio Mizuno
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  9. Ichiro Michishita
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  10. Masanobu Namura
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  11. Yutaka Nitta
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  12. Shoji Katsuda
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  13. Kazuyasu Okeie
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  14. Hiroaki Hirase
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  15. Hayato Tada
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  16. Katsuharu Uchiyama
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  17. Tetsuo Konno
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  18. Kenshi Hayashi
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  19. Hidekazu Ino
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  20. Keisuke Nagase
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  21. Mitsuyasu Terashima
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  22. Masakazu Yamagishi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masakazu Yamagishi.

Additional information

On Behalf of the MILLION Study Group.

See the members of MILLION Study Group are listed in Appendix.

Appendix

Appendix

The following are the major participants in the MILLION Study Group:

Masakazu Yamagishi, Masa-aki Kawashiri, Hidekazu Ino, Noboru Fujino, Atsushi Nohara, Katsuharu Uchiyama, Kenshi Hayashi, Kenji Sakata, Tetsuo Konno, Eiichi Masuta, Toshinari Tsubokawa, Hayato Tada, Akihiko Muramoto-Hodatsu, Chiaki Nakanishi, Mika Mori, Syu Takabatake, Toyonobu Tsuda, Ryusuke Yamamoto, Tadatsugu Gamou, Masaya Shimojima, Syohei Yoshida, Division of Cardiology, Kanazawa University Hospital; Honin Kanaya, Takao Matsubara, Toshihiko Yasuda, Kenji Miwa, Masaru Inoue, Ryota Teramoto, Hirofumi Okada, Yohei Yakuta, Takao Matsui, Department of Cardiology, Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital; Kosei Ueda, Toshinori Higashikata, Tomoya Kaneda, Mutsuko Takata, Takeshi Inoue, Miho Ohira, Department of Internal Medicine, Komatsu Municipal Hospital; Sumio Mizuno, Kazuo Ohsato, Tatsuaki Murakami, Katsushi Misawa, Hiromasa Kokado, Kensuke Fujioka, Junichiro Yokawa, Department of Cardiology, Fukui Cardiovascular Center; Ichiro Michishita, Taku Iwaki, Tsuyoshi Nozue, Hiromasa Kato, Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yokohama Sakae Kyosai Hospital; Masanobu Namura, Masatoshi Ikeda, Yuki Horita, Taketsugu Tsuchiya, Hidenobu Terai, Department of Cardiology, Kanazawa Cardiovascular Hospital; Yutaka Nitta, Tomio Taguchi, Bunji Kaku, Shoji Katsuda, Taiji Yoshida, Chikara Fujita, Tohru Aburao, Department of Cardiology, Toyama Red Cross Hospital; Kazuyasu Okeie, Masaru Kiyama, Masayuki Tsuchida, Munenori Ohta, Nobuo Ukawa, Department of Cardiology, Koseiren Takaoka Hospital: Hiroaki Hirase, Tatsuo Haraki, Tomoharu Yoshikawa, Masafumi Hashimoto, Department of Internal Medicine, Takaoka Municipal Hospital.

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Kawashiri, Ma., Sakata, K., Gamou, T. et al. Impact of combined lipid lowering with blood pressure control on coronary plaque regression: rationale and design of MILLION study. Heart Vessels 30, 580–586 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-014-0522-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-014-0522-7

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