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Background: Development of insulin resistance (IR) may be important in the pathogenesis of both metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Few data are available regarding the short-term efficacy of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ligand bezafibrate on IR, and its long-term effect is unknown. The present analysis aimed to investigate the effect of bezafibrate on IR in patients with coronary artery disease enrolled in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention Study., Methods: Metabolic and inflammatory parameters were analyzed from stored frozen plasma samples obtained from patients who completed a 2-year, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The homeostatic indexes of IR (HOMA-IRs) were calculated according to the homeostasis model of assessment., Results: Both the patients taking bezafibrate (n = 1262) and those taking placebo (n = 1242) displayed similar baseline characteristics. The HOMA-IRs significantly correlated at baseline and during follow-up with glucose (r = 0.35 and 0.31, respectively) and triglycerides (r = 0.16 and 0.19, respectively). In a subgroup of 351 patients with diabetes, HOMA-IR at baseline was 88% higher than in their counterparts with normal glucose levels (P<.001). In the placebo group, during follow-up there was a significant 34.4% rise in HOMA-IR. In contrast, in the bezafibrate group there was only a nonsignificant 6.6% change in HOMA-IR. The intergroup differences in percentage changes of HOMA-IR were in favor of bezafibrate (P<.001)., Conclusions: In patients with coronary artery disease enrolled in our study, as represented by the placebo group, HOMA-IR increased over time. During the 2 years of the follow-up, bezafibrate significantly attenuated this process.

Background: A consistent relationship between metabolic syndrome (MS) and myocardial infarction (MI) has been demonstrated. We evaluated the effect of bezafibrate retard, a fibric acid derivative, on the incidence of MI in patients with MS enrolled in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention (BIP) study., Methods: Patients who displayed at least 3 of the following 5 risk factors were considered to have MS: (1) a fasting glucose level of 110 mg/dL (6.11 mmol/L); (2) a triglyceride level of 150 mg/dL (1.70 mmol/L); (3) a high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level less than 40 mg/dL (<1.04 mmol/L) in men or less than 50 mg/dL (<1.30 mmol/L) in women; (4) a systolic blood pressure of 130 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure of 85 mm Hg; and (5) a body mass index of 28.0 kg/m(2). The study sample for this post hoc subgroup analyses comprised 1470 patients aged 42 to 74 years. The patients received either 400 mg of bezafibrate retard (740 patients) or placebo (730 patients) once a day. The mean follow-up period was 6.2 years for events and 8.1 years for mortality data., Results: New MI was recorded in 193 patients: 82 (11.1%) of the 740 patients in the bezafibrate group vs 111 (15.2%) of the 730 patients in the placebo group (P = .02). Bezafibrate was associated with a reduced risk of any MI and nonfatal MI with hazard ratios (HRs) of 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-0.95) and 0.67 (95% CI, 0.49-0.91), respectively. The cardiac mortality risk tended to be lower in patients taking bezafibrate (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.54-1.03). In 575 patients with augmented features of MS (4-5 risk factors), the remarkable strengthening of cardiac mortality reduction when taking bezafibrate (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.80) should be noted., Conclusion: Bezafibrate reduces the incidence of MI in patients with MS during long-term follow-up.

Background: Despite increasing evidence that beta-hydroxy-beta-methyglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors reduce the incidence of stroke in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), the associations between blood lipid levels and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) are not clear., Objective: To evaluate whether blood cholesterol level and its fractions are risk factors for stroke in a large group of patients with CHD., Methods: We followed up 11 177 patients with documented CHD who were screened for but not included in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention study, a secondary prevention randomized clinical trial of lipid modification, and had no history of stroke for subsequent CVD. During a 6- to 8-year follow-up period, 941 patients were identified as having nonhemorrhagic CVD, of whom 487 had verified ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA)., Results: Increases in age-adjusted rates of both nonhemorrhagic CVD and verified ischemic stroke or TIA were identified with increasing cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, decreasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and decreasing percentage of total serum cholesterol contained in the HDL moiety. In logistic regression models, adjusting for clinical covariates, the following odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were identified for lipid values in the upper vs lower tertile for the end point of nonhemorrhagic CVD: total cholesterol, 1.43 (1.20-1.70); low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 1.52 (1.27-1.81), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 0.84 (0.70-1.00); and percentage of serum cholesterol contained in HDL, 0.69 (0.58-0.83). Similar trends appeared for the end point of verified ischemic stroke or TIA., Conclusion: These findings clearly support the role of total cholesterol and its fractions in prediction of ischemic CVD among patients with established CHD.